WOAKES: UTHAPPA NOT BEING IN THE SIDE IS A DOWNFALL FOR THE TEAM

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The pacer of the Kolkata Knight Risers Woakes has stated that the absence of the inform batsman, Uthappa is draining our teams potential to a great extent and the opening pair did not clicked even

Last night against the Rising Pune Supergiants the absence of Uthappa was greatly missed and it could be seen from the body language of the team members and finally spoke upon this topic

It was KKR’s second consecutive defeat and having such a great start at the beginning of the league and later on following up with such loose performances won’t be working for the team well

“It’s a big void for us. He scored a lot of runs for us this tournament and is up there with the leading scorers of the tournament. Fingers crossed, he’s not out for too long and is back for the next game,” Woakes said on Wednesday (May 3).

Uthappa was an integral part of each of KKR’s previous two wins – against DD and RPS, adding strong second-wicket partnerships with captain Gautam Gambhir. In his absence, the top-order couldn’t put together a stand that would lay a strong platform for the side

“We did not quite get going in the Powerplay. To lose three wickets in Powerplay put us behind but we always tried to rebuild. When you keep losing wickets in T20 cricket, it’s hard to keep up with the rate. We were probably short by 15-20 runs. We were below-par and not an ideal score to defend on this wicket,” Woakes said.

“Our camp is still upbeat. We have some important games coming up and we want to make sure that we win to qualify. We still firmly believe in the dressing room that we can go on to finish in top two,” Woakes opined.

“It’s always difficult to stop a player on his day. We dropped a few chances against (David) Warner (in the previous match against Hyderabad). When you give good players some chances they take it for advantage.

“But we did not do that today. He (Tripathi) played a fantastic knock. All credit to him. He put us under pressure. He attacked the new ball and when spinners came in he hit some good boundaries and cleared the ropes. He looks a very good player, a guy for the future. Sometimes you have to say ‘very well played’,” Woakes conceded.