Kolkata Knight Riders batter Manish Pandey said the team was focusing on training and match preparations even when the Indian Premier League (IPL) was halted due to the military conflict between India and Pakistan as it was confident of the league’s resumption, and reckons that perhaps the forced mini-break could actually help it rediscover its touch.

KKR will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a must-win match in Bengaluru on Saturday to keep its Playoffs hopes alive.

“It (the mid-tournament break) doesn’t really change much because as professional cricketers, we know what’s to be done. We definitely knew that the tournament would resume, but we didn’t know how soon. But it was good that we didn’t have a lot of break,” said Pandey in the pre-match press conference on Friday.

“We were still in the gym and doing our work on the game. The whole team is here and everyone is ready to go and we are looking forward to having a great game,” he added.

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However, a defeat against RCB will put paid to KKR’s knockout stage ambitions, but Pandey did not view it as a pressure point.

“You know, nothing much to lose from here. Actually, we just thought we could have had a better tournament as a team. We were discussing that, but nevertheless, we lost a few games in the middle. If you think about those crucial games, you wish now that you had won those games. But yeah, definitely two more games to go. Everybody is wanting to perform,” he said.

KKR is a strong side on paper, but it has not been able to perform consistently this season.

Pandey attributed KKR’s poor campaign to its inability to stitch together a series of wins like it did last year.

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“Last time we were winning games, a lot of games, which is very important in a tournament like IPL. This time we were winning one, but were losing one. The whole tournament was like that.

“Our batting has been fine. We have been bowling really well. It has been a year where it has been a little patchy in terms of both the performances, batting and bowling. Hopefully, we will have a similar strong core for next year as well and can win games like we were doing last year,” he said.

Pandey hopes the unexpected mid-event break will help KKR regain its mojo in its last two games.

“But a break like this could definitely help. I am pretty sure guys would have gone back home and seen their videos and tried to work on a few things that they didn’t have the opportunity to do. So, I think it should be a good break. As I said, the only thing I am hoping for is to win the last two games and end on a high,” he said.