Rajasthan Royals, the reigning IPL champions, will be looking to rediscover their famous team spirit in the second season, which kicks off in South Africa on April 18.

“The secret of our success last year was that we clicked as a unit. It should be the goal this year as well,” said Mohammad Kaif, arguably the most well-known Indian player in the team.

From a bunch of no-hopers who did not even spend the allotted quota of money to buy players in the first auction, the Shane Warne-led team played some extremely disciplined cricket to come out winners of the five-week contest last time.

It is a feat that could put them in the highest echelons of sporting excellence as the Royals are in the early running for nominations in the best team category for Laureus World Sports Awards.

The other possible nominees in this category, hold your breath, is Jamaica’s Olympic sprint team, including 100 metre and 200 champion Usain Bolt, British cycling team, which went on a medal-spree in Beijing, and Spain’s European Championship-winning soccer team.

In cricket, the only other early nomination is that of South African team, which became the first side in 16 years to win a Test series in Australia.

The final list of nominees, venue and date for what is the sporting Oscars now will be announced on April 16.

While Kaif was not aware of this, the Test discard said he was looking forward to meet the teammates in South Africa on April 5.

“I have not been quite in touch with the boys, but we are expected to have a camp at our base in Cape Town,” Kaif told Gulf News over phone. “It will certainly not be the same to play in front of your home crowd, but it could be a different experience altogether,” he said.

Asked about a possible pressure factor from being the underdogs last year to getting down to title-defence, Kaif said it would not weigh them down. “See, it’s a short game and one bad day can make a lot of difference. The idea would be to take it match by match and see show it goes,” said the middle order batsman, who agreed that he needed to make up for a patchy individual form last year.

While the first edition of IPL saw a virtual run-feast in most of the games, it will it be little more challenging for the batsmen on the bouncier wickets of South Africa where the ball also moves around a bit in the evening? “Most of the leading stroke players of the world would love the bounce there. However, it might see some more even contest between the bat and ball with some low-scoring matches as well,” Kaif said.
Source – gulfnews.com