'Cricket a Game of Self-belief at This Level': Shashank Singh on ...

Shashank Singh scored 46 off 25 deliveries against SRH (AP Photo)

Shashank Singh along with his partner in crime at Punjab Kings were almost able to produce a magical partnership against Sunrisers Hyderabad but fell short in the end as they lost by two runs to mark their first loss at their new home,  Mullanpur Stadium in Mohali.

The middle-order batter had spoken to the media in a post-match press conference where he revealed some insights as to how many uncapped players can deliver sensational performances in the 2024 season of the IPL.

He said,” The only thing is self-belief. Like the way we play domestic cricket. Like you see SRH’s Nitish (Reddy) here. He usually scores and takes wickets in white-ball and red-ball cricket (in domestic competitions)”.

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“The way we play in domestic cricket. Nitish and Ashutosh have performed in Mushtaq Ali, Vijay Hazare and Ranji Trophy, (same for) Angkrish,” Shashank added.

Representing Chhattisgarh in the first-class format, the 32-year-old feels that the uncapped players that have performed in the IPL, have already garnered a good reputation for themselves by performing in the domestic circuit.

Shashank said, “You can say these players are unknown but they are known players in the domestic circuit. They did well in the domestic circuit and their performances in IPL are a reward for that (hard work). You need to continue your domestic performance here. Cricket is a game of self-belief at this level”.

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He was disappointed by the loss but accepted it as it happened. He also revealed that both him and Ashutosh had been taking part in match simulations very similar to the situation against SRH which led them to have full belief in being able to get the win.

“We lost the match by two runs but the most painful thing is to lose a match because we play to win. A defeat is a defeat whether it is by two runs or 20 runs. I must credit Ashutosh for turning the match, the way he batted in the last over. We had belief till the second-last ball that it is possible,” Shashank said.

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“We did a lot of match simulation in the camp before the IPL. We (Ashutosh and I) used to shuffle between 5 and 6 in the batting order. We had been given a lot of scenarios like 60 or 70 off five overs and we chased that target a lot of times. So we always had the belief,” he concluded.

(with PTI Inputs)