Bowling gets nod of approval, coach Joshi calls for batting refinement

Punjab Kings influential skipper Shikhar Dhawan is currently undergoing rehabilitation after suffering a shoulder injury the teams spinbowling coach Sunil Joshi said on WednesdaySam Curran stood in as Punjab Kings captain in Dhawans absence in their match against Rajasthan Royals While he is set to miss Thursdays match against Mumbai Indians Dhawan also remains doubtful for the April 21 game against Gujarat TitansRegarding Shikhar the medical team will update As for now he is under rehab Joshi said at the prematch press conferenceDhawan hasnt had a great time with the bat in IPL 2024 but is still Kings highest rungetter currently with 152 runs from five innings scoring at a strike rate of 12561Joshi also said its high time the toporder batters find their groove and lift the team that is struggling at the seventh place with just two wins and four lossesThe only bright spot for PBKS this season has been resolute displays from their unsung Indian players Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma who both bat lower in the order and have had to make up for the shortcomings at the top more than onceSee its always like bowlers win tournaments batsmen win matches And our bowling unit is definitely doing well consistently in all the areas Its time our batters take responsibility Joshi saidWe have addressed the areas where we needed to look at to score runs And also coming into this wicket its a challenge for batters also Straightway unlike other wickets in India this is a challenging wickets for every batter especially for the visitors its going to be a challenge because the nature of bounce is completely different So its advantage for us I guess the former India leftarm spinner addedAlso ReadIndias T20 World Cup squad DubeRinkuGill vs Jaiswal shootoutJonny Bairstow Dhawans opening partner has had a rough time too scoring just 96 runs in six innings while Prabhsimran Singh 119 runs in six innings and Jitesh Sharma 106 runs in six innings have struggled for consistency and impact alsoWith selection for the World Cup squad on the horizon Jitesh who is averaging 1766 would be under the pumpIn T20s when you go through the first half of the tournament you will understand what sort of an approach you need to look at At the same time you need to look at the target and whether you can approach it in a different way to approach that target because we have done well in the middle and we have had a great finish Two new boys Shashank and Ashutos have chipped in Its time for the toporder to get into the groove and do a good job for usPBKS will have to find more support for their overseas bowling duo of Curran 126 runs and 8 wickets and Kagiso Rabada 9 The Indian pair of Arshdeep Singh 9 and Harshal Patel 7 have both been easy targets for battersIn T20 anything can happen even the last over what you saw yesterday between KKR and RR but nevertheless they will all come back stronger They know the conditions better especially Harpreet Brar because he has played and he plays domestic cricket in the same ground He understands and hopefully he will come back stronger Joshi saidHe added Each and every game is important and always our thought process is that we should strive to do well If we look at the our last three games they lasted till the last over fifth ball of last over So it can be anybodys match especially in this format Our endeavour is to always take the match deep Definitely we have not done well in batting in power play and we have addressed that issueWith agency inputs