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 like a really good wicket.

“So, I can’t really say how those wickets looked in earlier games, but the track that’s been produced for this one looks actually to be a very good cricket wicket and I think it should be a pretty high scoring game,” he added.

Sanju is getting assessed ================ Dravid said regular RR skipper Sanju Samson’s fitness is getting assessed on a daily basis. Samson will miss the match against RCB with an abdominal niggle.

“Sanju, I think, sort of picked up a bit of a side issue with the game against Delhi (Capitals) and he couldn’t play the last game and in this game as well. He wasn’t fit and our medical team sort of didn’t rule him fit to play this game.

“So, we took the decision and the medical advice to not risk him to travel — make two more flights and be here. We kept the physio back so that we can treat him and try and get him back as quickly as we possibly can. We’re looking at it on a day-to-day basis.” The former India coach did not give any specific time-line for Samson’s return.

“I have no time-line to give as to when exactly he will be fit, but we’re trying our best, you know, obviously we’ve got to play here, after this we’ve got a game on (April) 27th and we’ve got a few games quickly and then we’ve got a gap.

“So, we’ll just have to see how it goes. Honestly, he was not fit for this game and he didn’t travel here,” he added.

Dravid said Riyan Parag has stepped in effectively as the captain of the side in the absence of Samson despite a few matches not going the team’s way.

“Sanju is still the captain of the team and Riyan is the vice-captain and he stepped in really well. I think Riyan had captained four of the games, even in the first three games, in fact, Sanju wasn’t able to field because of the finger injury.

“Some of those games haven’t been easy, especially the high-scoring ones, like the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. But I think he’s done a good job.” The 52-year-old said Parag has remained collected in the face of a tough job like the IPL captaincy.

“I think he’s been really good, calm and, you know, we were just having a chat with him about some of his bowling changes and field placements.

“I think they’ve been really good and he’s getting the pulse of the game really well. So for someone who’s so young and just starting out in his captaincy, I think he’s kind of, you know, adapting well to it. Of course, the team needs to play well for him,” he said.