"Draw a line in the sand now and...:' Jason Roy has a message for his KKR teammates

Jason Roy believes Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have it in them to turn their gloomy fortunes around and reignite the winning streak to keep their playoff hopes alive in IPL 2023. The England opener reckons his side can bounce back so as long as they retain high spirits and not let the spree of defeats get to their head. 

After an impressive beginning, KKR have faced four consecutive losses in the league stage, where they are placed eighth in the ten-team standings with two victories and five defeats and a negative NRR of -0.186. 

Bowling has been their major problem area, conceding regularly above par totals on flat pitches, which has meant extra pressure on the batting unit to operate at great strike-rates in order to achieve the desired scores. None of the regular KKR bowlers with the minimum of five matches played out of the seven has an economy rate below 8.  

The direct byproduct of it is a scenario where even as none of the team's top five run-makers have gone below a SR of 140, they have consistently gone down against oppositions that have executed their bowling plans much better. In the last game, KKR made a whopping 186/8 batting second but still lost by a huge margin of 49 against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). 

Jason Roy's word of encouragement for KKR amidst losing streak 

It would take something special for KKR to transform their fortunes with the ball and reverse the trend of results as they stare at an early exit from the title contention. 

But Jason Roy believes there is firepower within the side and the ability to bounce back from a position where they must beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Wednesday (April 26) to stay alive in the tournament. 

"The talk in the camp is to just keep pushing hard, we got to enjoy ourselves. It is very easy in cricket, especially in short formats to lose and (resultantly) lose a lot of confidence," Roy, who made a blistering 26-ball 61 in the defeat against CSK, told the press. 

"We are trying to keep the confidence high, smile in the change room, making sure our methods do not change too much. As individuals we need to look in the mirror, get better each session and think how we can individually impact the game in a better way."

"We have had some good individual performances along the losses, which is a bit of positive, but a loss is a loss. We got to draw a line in the sand now that the half of the tournament is done for us and we just got to push forward," he added. 

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Another loss in the RCB encounter would leave KKR in absolute spot of bother, needing to win all their remaining games or hope that other results favour their chances - a scenario that rarely works out for any losing team.