Under Pressure Rahul Dravid Delivers Brutal "No Options" Message To Rajasthan Royals

Head coach Rahul Dravid on Wednesday acknowledged that Rajasthan Royals cannot afford another slip-up after sliding to eighth on the IPL points table and his team has "no option" other than start "winning games quickly." The Royals will come up against an in-form Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, and another reversal will make it really tough for them to nourish play-off aspirations. "It's a very important game for us, in fact, every game from here on in, as the position we find ourselves in, we can't afford to make many mistakes. This stage is a tournament… just over half way, we find ourselves at the bottom half of the table," Dravid said in the pre-match press conference.

“We've got to start climbing that table quickly and we've got to start winning games quickly. There are no options, no chances of slipping up anymore,” he added.

Dravid accepted that the Royals have not fared well in crunch situations in this tournament despite playing excellent cricket in patches.

“We know we have to play well to be still alive in this tournament. Now, we've lost a couple of close games coming into this, but we've played some good cricket as well.

“It's one of those tournaments where a few balls going here or there and we might have been in a slightly different position. But you need to play well in those critical moments and it hasn't happened for us,” he noted.

The Chinnaswamy stadium pitch has unusually favoured bowlers more in this IPL than the batters, but Dravid hoped for a change of character on Thursday.

“You just have to go for it irrespective (of the nature of the pitch). But I think every surface will be different. The wicket I'm seeing here, from at least what I can make of it, looks