Mullanpur (Punjab) [India], March 22 (ANI): Ahead of his side’s Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign opening clash against Delhi Capitals on Saturday, Punjab Kings (PBKS) all-rounder Liam Livingstone said that they are now used to the conditions of the new Mullanpur Stadium, where they will be playing all their home games and will be looking to improve their record in this season.
Punjab will be kickstarting their IPL season from Saturday with hopes to book a spot in playoffs this time after years of disappointing performances. DC on the other hand is boosted by the return of their star skipper and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant.
Ahead of the match, Livingstone said, “It is a new stadium. We have had five and six training sessions to get used to the conditions here. We retained most of our players from last season and everyone’s excited for the challenges that lie ahead of us.”
The Punjab Kings finished in the eighth position in the last season of the IPL. Livingstone expressed that the team is determined to improve their performance this season.
“We did a lot of good things last season. We were in the running for a playoff spot until the last couple of games. We have got a really good squad and the team environment is great. We will certainly look to improve our performance this season,” said the all-rounder.
The all-rounder further expressed, “We will be looking to have a lot of fun and enjoy ourselves on the park and step up in the big moments. We should deal with the pressure moments well and hopefully, we will come up on the right side more times than not.”
When asked about the new two bouncers per over rule in the IPL, Livingstone said, “I think it will be good to have two bouncers available. The bowlers have complained a lot over the years that everything is in the batters’ favour, so they have got something in their favour now. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
The Punjab Kings will be in action against Delhi Capitals at 3:30 PM IST on Saturday.
Delhi Capitals Squad: David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(c), Shai Hope(w), Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Anrich Nortje, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Ricky Bhui, Jhye Richardson, Praveen Dubey, Rasikh Dar Salam, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sumit Kumar, Kumar Kushagra, Tristan Stubbs, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, Abishek Porel, Swastik Chikara
Punjab Kings Squad: Shikhar Dhawan(c), Prabhsimran Singh, Jonny Bairstow, Sikandar Raza, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Shivam Singh, Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone, Rilee Rossouw, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Rishi Dhawan, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajan, Ashutosh Sharma, Atharva Taide, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Prince Choudhary, Vishwanath Singh. (ANI)
