‘Don’t overthink’: Mukul reveals Pant’s advice that sparked his heroics against KKR
Kolkata: Indian Premier League’s (IPL) new superstar Mukul Choudhary revealed an important piece of advice from skipper Rishabh Pant, which helped him remain calm in the pressure situation as he played a match-winning knock of 54 runs for his side Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens on Thursday.
Chasing 182, LSG were under pressure in the final overs, but Mukul held his nerve and turned the game around with fearless hitting. He smashed crucial sixes in the closing stages, including two in the final over, to take his team over the line. After the match, Mukul revealed how Pant’s words helped him stay calm and trust his instincts.
“The main thing is calmness. Over the last one or two years, earlier I used to rush a bit, but in the past few months, I’ve worked on this in practice, so that I want to bat as long as possible. If I take the game till the end, I believe I can win it for my team,” Mukul said at the post-match press conference.
“Even in the last match, I played 4 to 5 balls, I didn’t get out, but I wasn’t timing it well. So I spoke to Rishabh bhai. He told me that I was overthinking, thinking, ‘I will do this, I will do that.’ He said don’t think so much. Just focus on your job, your process, what you’ve always done. If you overthink, you’ll feel pressure. Watch the ball. When you hit it, you hit it well. I believe in you, but you need to believe in yourself too,” he added.
Mukul, who won the player of the match award for his brilliant knock, dedicated the achievement to his father, who had a dream that his son would become a good cricketer.
“I will dedicate this knock to my father. He had a dream even before he got married that his son would play cricket. I watched MS (Dhoni) sir and how he finished the game. I bat in the same position, and I also want to dedicate this finish to him,” he said.