Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Chandrakant Pandit said he is hopeful for the team to make a strong comeback in the second half of the IPL 2023 season, saying the team is looking forward to starting afresh. KKR succumbed to a close defeat against Punjab Kings (PBKS) to win their next couple of games, including a last-over thriller against Gujarat Titans (GT) where Rinku Singh hit 5 sixes in the final over.

While the win against the defending champions was expected to become the morale booster for the KKR, they suffered 4 consecutive losses and now are now reeling at the 8th spot in the 10-team points table with just 2 wins from 7 matches. KKR faces a crunch battle against in-form Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday, April 26.

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KKR need to get back to winning ways if they want to qualify for the playoffs has heated up with as many as 4 teams in 8 points behind Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT) who have 10 points each. In a video shared by KKR, Chandrakant Pandit said, “This is the beginning, I would say, this is the beginning again in the 2nd half. Winning the first game, we have beaten them earlier. That confidence we should have. I am sure that just one spark in our team that will take us forward.”

The former India cricketer, who is known for winning domestic titles with stunning consistency, said the team has not played poorly and there were quite a few brilliant individual performances even during their 4-match losing streak.

Elaborating the same, Chandrakant Pandit said, “One has to be very optimistic. I mean, how I look at this tournament now is that the tournament is starting for us from tomorrow. And that is a positive angle from which I look at it. Obviously, a different environment has been created and the confidence level which we had in the first-half, we shouldn’t forget about that.”

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He further added, “It’s not that we have not been playing good cricket. So every individual player has raised his hand, and shown us that he is ready to take responsibility.”

Chandrakant Pandit also hopes Bengaluru, the venue where he oversaw Madhya Pradesh winning their maiden Ranji Trophy title in 2022, will be the start of the turning point for KKR in IPL 2023.