GT vs PBKS: Batting First Wasn't The Wrong Call, Needed To Get Out Of Comfort Zone - Hardik Pandya After GT's 2nd Loss

Gujarat Titans (GT) captain Hardik Pandya defended the decision to bat first against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Tuesday which led to a resounding defeat at the hands of Mayank Agarwal and co.

Batting first, GT managed to put up only 143 on the board which was chased down by PBKS in just 16 overs. Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and Liam Livingstone played crucial knocks which helped PBKS jump to the 5th spot on the table.

“We weren’t even close to a par score. 170 would have been ideal, but we kept losing wickets regularly and never came anywhere near it. I backed ourselves with the bat, batting first wasn’t a wrong call, we needed to come out of our comfort zone (which was chasing targets).”

“We have chased well in this tournament, if required (later on in the tournament), we had to know how to set targets. This is part of a learning curve, but this is all about learning to come out of our own comfort zone,” Hardik said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

“We were always talking about getting better even when we were winning” – Hardik Pandya

Hardik further insisted that despite winning most of their matches, GT was looking to improve and one of the aspects they needed to work on was defending totals. Although it didn’t work out on Tuesday, they will try and fix the mistakes committed today.

“We were always talking about getting better even when we were winning, we would talk about things that didn’t go our way (today) and would look to come back better in the coming games. We have another game in a couple of days, we need to regroup, winning and losing are a part of the sport,” Hardik added.

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