London, April 30: Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen is willing to bet the Gujarat Titans will go all the way in the current edition of the Indian Premier League and says rookies “find ways to win consistently”, even in desperate situations.
The team led by Hardik Pandya currently leads the IPL table with 14 points after winning seven matches and losing just one.
“At the moment, it looks like the Gujarat Titans are going to be hard to stop in the IPL. They constantly find ways to win, whether it’s from a good, medium or bad position in games. When you have that winning mentality, it becomes very hard to break,” Pietersen told Betway Insider.
The cricketer-turned-commentator added that his first impression of the team after the IPL mega-auction was that it would not be a winning unit.
“I didn’t see them at the top of the table when I first saw their squad but they are on a roll. It reminds me of Rajasthan Royals when they won the title with Shane Warne in 2008 – they weren’t the best team on paper but everyone knew what they were doing and had a great mentality, when you win like that the energy in the locker room is very positive.
“No one talks about losses, everyone has a smile on their face and everyone thinks positively. That allows you to go out there and express yourself and play even better. They’re not inhibited. They just instinctively do what feels right.” Look at Rashid Khan when he took them across the line against Sunrisers Hyderabad the other night. He just had a positive attitude and was able to pull it off.” Pietersen also praised the Rajasthan Royals, saying that they too were doing well in the tournament.
“Rajasthan is also doing very well, while I hope that Delhi Capitals with all their experience will put in a good effort to get into the top four. Those three teams are my favorites to win the competition, although he added that KKR were in a mess .
“I was working on Thursday’s game when the Kolkata Knight Riders collapsed to defeat Delhi. I know the Mumbai Indians are in for an upset, but KKR are also in terrible form. They won three of their first four games and have lost by full. since then. They’ve used 19 players so far, which is too many. For a franchise as big as them, it’s just a horrible situation. That’s a locker room full of the opposite energy of Gujarat: negative, negative, negative. The year In the past, that race to the final was defined by innovative thinking. They had their analyst, Nathan Leamon, front and center, sending signals to the middle, and they seemed really innovative.
“Now it seems like everything has run out of steam. Along with Mumbai, they are my disappointments of the competition so far,” Pietersen added.
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— The story has been published from a cable source with no changes to the text.