After a disastrous campaign in the fifth edition of Indian Premier League, Pune Warriors India wicketkeeper-batsman Robin Uthappa defended his team’s skipper Sourav Ganguly saying, for someone of Ganguly’s age it’s a tough challenge to adjust in the shortest format. “I think Dada has done the best he could do and you have respect his age well. It’s the format that is most challenging for someone of his age. He has done a wonderful job for us in whatever capacity he could,” said Uthappa.
Despite an impressive start to the season, Pune failed to sustain their momentum and started to fall apart. Referring to the poor performance, the Pune wicketkeeper said, “We played close games this year, but on the whole, we were bad. As a unit, we never felt we were not up to the mark.
“We had quality players, we were a very strong side, but somehow results never showed that. Even the atmosphere in the dressing room was very positive. We lost games by five runs or seven runs, even by one run. Those kinds of defeats hit you hard. We couldn’t come back from there.”
The Karnataka batsman was the highest run-getter for Pune in this season of IPL with 405 runs from the 16 matches he played. “As far as batting is concerned I had a pretty decent IPL. If I had some consistency at any given batting position, I would have had a little more. It was difficult to keep switching batting positions, but I need to work on that aspect. If we take care of these issues, we will come better next year,” he said.
Though Uthappa had a good season with the bat but his performance with the gloves were far from what the team would have expected. “I have been working on it and it hasn’t been the greatest season as far as keeping is concerned. I definitely want to work on it. I am really enjoying it on certain wickets like the one in Pune where one ball turns and other keeps low. It keeps you on your toes and you can’t relax for a single ball.
“I am going to work on my keeping and batting as well. I would want to score 550 runs instead of 400 in the next season,” Uthappa was quoted as saying by the official website of Indian Premier League.
The attacking batsman however remained upbeat about the team’s future saying there are a lot of positives to move forward with despite too many loses. “Steve Smith has been exceptional. Guys like Callum Ferguson – he is such a great team player and having him in the dressing room is fantastic. Even Jesse Ryder, for that matter. Even though we didn’t do well this season, we enjoyed ourselves as cricketers. If we go on to win matches and be in the top four, the atmosphere in the dressing room is going to be so much better,” he said.
He also mentioned the absence of Yuvraj Singh and the impact he creates when he’s playing for the side. “We have missed Yuvi a lot. The kind of impact that he creates on the field is tremendous. We are pretty sure that he will be back next year for us,” said the Karnataka opener.
Uthappa ended on an apologetic note as their team had let down the enthusiastic Pune fans who cheered and supported them all through the season.
“We want to apologise to the people in Pune. Even though we lost games, they came in large numbers for every match. Even the afternoon games were full and they didn’t mind coming to support us in insane heat. There were so many times that we kept telling ourselves that lets win games for them,” he concluded.
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