IPL 2021: "I'm enjoying myself regardless of the performances" - Nicholas Pooran
Nicholas Pooran has made a terrible start to the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), scoring only 9 runs in 4 games. However, the Punjab Kings (PBKS) middle-order batsman is making sure this string of poor performances doesn't affect him mentally.
Ahead of the game against the Mumbai Indians (MI), the left-hander seemed to be in a good frame of mind and spoke about the team atmosphere at the moment.
"I am enjoying myself regardless of performances. We have a good team, we have a lot of good teammates. The camp is very cool and everyone is supportive so far," said Pooran.
Talking about his struggles with the bat, Nicholas Pooran stated that he would learn from mistakes.
"Cricket is just like life, it's funny. One minute, you are up, the next minute, you're down. These are the times you cherish. It happens, it's not going to be the first time to happen. It's gonna happen over and over again. I'll remember the mistakes I make and try to learn from them as fast as possible," said Nicholas Pooran.
Nicholas Pooran not concerned about the Chennai pitch
Ever since the start of the tournament, there have been several discussions about the sluggish tracks in Chennai. However, Nicholas Pooran wants to take the pitch out of the equation and hopes to get the basics right. Talking about the pitch in Chennai, Pooran said:
"It doesn't really matter what the pitch is. As a group. we need to continue doing the right things. Once you do the right things, you'll get over the line. We aren't thinking about the results, we are focussed on ourselves."
The Punjab Kings have lost three out of the four games they have played in the tournament so far. For the match against the Mumbai Indians, they made one change to the starting XI by roping in Ravi Bishnoi in the place of Murugan Ashwin.
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): KL Rahul (c) (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Moises Henriques, Shahrukh Khan, Fabian Allen, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh