Lucknow Super Giants wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Cock feels that his former team Mumbai Indians will be very desperate to win their first game of this year’s IPL 2022 season today.

The afternoon match taking place between the Mumbai Indians and the Lucknow Super Giants will see Mumbai trying their best to pick their maiden win in the IPL 2022 this time whereas Lucknow would be looking to gain some momentum after their narrow defeat against Rajasthan Royals last time round.

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“Obviously with Mumbai at the moment, I think we will try to get our momentum back after the loss in the last game. We would love to get another win but Mumbai is going to be very desperate for their first win. I know they will come out hard, knowing their couple of boys in the team and I got a feeling that they will come out fighting, which is expected out of Mumbai. Gotta make sure we dig deep and get our chance to try and get a win on top of it,” de Kock said in a pre-match interview with the  Star Sports broadcasters.

Quinton de Kock is currently playing under his fifth IPL franchise after having represented the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals), Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Mumbai. He has starred in two of Lucknow’s wins while chasing against Delhi and Chennai Super Kings, making 80 and 61 runs respectively.

“It’s been good and the team environment is on a high. We have done really well as a new team this season. Now, it’s just a matter of carrying on with the momentum. We have got a really great squad with a bunch of good guys. It’s about taking on today and getting another win,” said the 29-year-old.

It is also the first time de Kock is batting alongside KL Rahul in T20 cricket and when asked about him, he was full of praises for his current skipper. “It’s been good (on batting alongside Rahul). It’s pretty relaxed; we don’t talk so much and have just a mutual understanding of each other, which is quite cool. It’s pretty easy; we don’t go too much into things. Just go out there and play the ball with mutual understanding.”

De Kock believes that he will use his past experience as an opening batsman to deal with different teams along with different batting conditions in the IPL 2022. “It hasn’t been too bad. In one game, we got a really spicy wicket and in the next game, it’s all flat at the top. The general thing is team batting second has got little bit better conditions.”

“We had come up against (situations) when we bat first and conditions are a little bit tougher, especially with the seamers. It’s a matter of going back to past experiences and playing with the pace I can. The same is for KL and the rest of the guys. Today is a day game that could play very differently from what I saw in last night’s game which had a bit of movement early on in both innings. Let’s see what happens.” he further added

(Inputs from IANS)