Rajasthan Royals (RR) coach, Kumar Sangakkara, has made headlines on social media after a video of him "blasting" his team went viral. This was after the team's humiliating nine-wicket loss to the defending champions, the Gujarat Titans (GT), in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. RR batted first, but were bowled out for a meagre 118 runs, and GT comfortably chased down the target with 37 balls and 9 wickets remaining.
Don't dwell on result
RR had begun their IPL 2023 campaign strongly, winning four out of their first five matches. However, their form took a sudden dip, and they have since lost four of their last five games. Despite this, the team is currently in fourth position on the IPL 2023 points table with five wins from ten matches.
Following the loss to GT, Sangakkara did not hold back in his criticism of the team in the dressing room. In the video, the former Sri Lankan cricketer can be seen and heard telling the players that they played the "worst cricket" and that they should not dwell on the result but rather focus on their upcoming IPL 2023 match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Piss poor game
"I know everyone's hurting. The reality of it is, we played a pi*-poor game. The shi*iest cricket that we can play, and we did that. Alright?” Sangakkara began his dressing room speech.
"Thinking about what happened today, the only thing you want to do is learn from it. It was embarrassing. What the fans are going to think, what the points table is showing, it doesn't change the quality of our side just because we played an absolutely poor game."
"Accept it first. You want to learn, you have to accept that you weren't good enough. Gujarat outplayed us, but that's only this day. We have one day to recover, we can keep talking about mistakes we can learn from," he added.
“How do we solve challenges that we face in the middle? How do we get ready for Sunrisers game? How do we play a really good game? That's all you guys have to think about. Nothing else,” Sangakkara concluded.
