Follow UsKolkata Knight Riders (KKR) all-rounder Moeen Ali wants his team to learn from Mumbai Indians (MI), who have turned their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season around with four wins on the trot.
The Knight Riders, who have lost three out of their last four games, would have to now win five of their last six games to make sure of their entry into the playoffs and defend their title.
“If you look at history, even Mumbai had a bad start, and now they’ve won four in a row, and they’re flying. We need to have that same mindset. We’re halfway through, we have to win most of our games,” Moeen said on April 25 (Friday) in the pre-match press conference ahead of KKR’s must-win clash against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on April 26 (Saturday), at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
“This squad has shown it can go on a run. But it’s going to take a lot of determination and belief to do that,” he added.
In their earlier clash, the PBKS, led by Shreyas Iyer, the title-winning skipper of KKR in IPL 2024, had bowled KKR out for 95 and defended 111, thanks to Yuzvendra Chahal’s devastating spell of 4/28. But Moeen feels that KKR have a squad that can make a comeback against the PBKS side as it is all about confidence.
“It was literally a bad half an hour or 40 minutes. The guys have played Chahal many times and done well. He had a brilliant day, and we didn’t play him well at all. But you either go in thinking he’ll destroy you again, or you take him on with confidence. Hopefully, we do the latter,” said the Englishman, who was not part of KKR's playing 11 in that game.