"My bowling has not been the mark...": MI all-rounder Shepherd ahead of KKR clash

MUMBAI: Ahead of his side's Indian Premier League (IPL) game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Mumbai Indians (MI) all-rounder Romario Shepherd said that his bowling has not been up to the mark and he has been working to make it better.

Mi and KKR will be locking horns in a high-octane clash at Wankhede Stadium on Friday. KKR is at the second spot in the points table, with six wins and three losses, giving them 12 points. They won their previous clash against Delhi Capitals. Mi is at the ninth spot with three wins and seven losses, giving them just six points. They lost their previous game to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Ahead of the game, Shepherd admitted that his bowling has been smashed all over the park and he is sweating it out in nets to make it better.

"My bowling has not been up to the mark in the tournament so far. So, whenever I get the next opportunity, I can bowl better because, you know, bowling has been going to our park, and, you know, myself is no exception," said Shepherd as quoted by Mi's official website.

The all-rounder has bowled 10 overs this season and hit for 129 runs. He has taken just one wicket so far in this tournament..

"You know, each place you go, you have to try and adapt as fast as possible. And, you know, you must have plans," said Shepherd on his bowling.

"That is why we have team meetings and analysts to analyze where we bowl each batter. Over here, you can mis-execute, execute, and also go for runs. So, sometimes, you cannot judge yourself based only on the run rate.”

"You have to ask yourself if you did exactly what you wanted to do. The batter was better on the day, or if you were bowling, you know, wrong balls at wrong plans. So, I assess as quickly as

possible and devise a plan," he concluded. Shepherd also said that the team at this point in the tournament,

has to play with an aim to win and put the very idea of scoring points behind.

"We just have to play to win. That is how we play cricket: to win each game. So it does not matter how many points we can score," said Shepherd.

The hard-hitting all-rounder returned to Wankhede, where he had smashed 32 runs in the final over against Delhi Capitals (DC). Asked if he could replicate it, Shepherd said, "You know, 32 runs in one over is hard. And you will not get those 32 runs out every game."

"The expectation is high. So you set the bar high, and people expect you to go there and hit each ball for six and get a boundary and stuff like that. Unfortunately, in the game of cricket, that does not happen. And, you know, sometimes you've got to rock and roll with that," he added.

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w). Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Shreyas lyer(c), Venkatesh lyer, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Dushmantha Chameera, Allah Ghazanfar, Sakib Hussain, Sherfane Rutherford, Chetan Sakariya, Nitish Rana, Srikar Bharat

Mumbai Indians Squad: Ishan Kishan/w), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Nuwan Thushara, Naman Dhir, Shams Mulani, Dewald Brevis, Kumar Kartikeya, Luke Wood, Shreyas Gopal, Harvik Desai, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Shivalik Sharma, Anshul Kamboj, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka.