Pradeep Pattanayak

The Indian Cricket team was on Saturday spotted sweating it out in the nets at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack ahead of the second T20I of the five-match series on Sunday. 

After some fitness drills, the Rishabh Pant’s Men in Blue practiced in the nets, with setting a target to win the match. 

Notably, the Men in Blue lost the first match played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi to South Africa. 

Worth mentioning, after reaching the stadium, Bhuvneshwar Kumar addressed a press conference and answered the queries of journalists. 

Kumar admitted that the Indian team’s debacle at the first match was due to failure of the bowling department. 
“We expect to improve our bowling as it was a not up to the mark in our earlier match. As four matches are left, we still have the chance to win the series. If we do our bowling and batting well, we will win the match,” Kumar said. 

“We have had a discussion about what went wrong in the first match. All of us know what should be done in the nest match and what things we need to improve on. We want to come back in the next match,” Kumar added. 

“Since there is no senior bowler in the team, I have to take maximum responsibility as anyone in my place should do. Our focus is to improve our bowling side before going to world cup.  The previous one was the first match of Rishabh Pant as captain. It is natural to blame a captain if his decision of handing over bowling to someone fails and at the same time, if his decision clicks, he is lauded. However, I do hope that we will perform well in tomorrow’s match," Kumar said. 

"Since the boundary of the Barabati Stadium is comparatively small, there will be some difficulties but it is not that we are going to play in such a stadium. In fact all of us are aware of it and accordingly we will play. Despite losing the first match, we have the chance to win the series. What we will have to do is to perform well as a team," Kumar said. 

Replying to a query about David Miller's current form, Kumar said, “I hope SA team drops him but they wouldn’t do that. I know what type of batsman he is. Our aim would be to send him to pavilion early. Definitely, it will be a challenge for the bowlers."
 

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