With three players who were part of Australia’s World Cup winning team in their ranks, including captain Shane Watson, the Rajasthan Royals will be looking to feed off the confidence from the men-in-form. Speaking about the team’s preparation and mindset ahead of their opening game of the Pepsi Indian Premier League 2015, Stuart Binny said, “We have all been away playing different forms of cricket and everyone’s been in terrific form if you see the squad. Everyone is coming from high performances and highs in the World Cup.

So I think the preparation has been short but it has been excellent coming into the tournament.”Steven Smith who has been in superb form over the past many months will be one of the key players for the side. Speaking about the prolific run-scorer from Australia and what he brings to the table, Binny mentioned, “For sure it’s good to have him on our side.

Steven Smith is in tremendous form. It was a pleasure watching him in Australia. It is good to have people in form and (newer) guys coming in to the tournament can take a lot of confidence from him and have a chat with him and see what space he is in and how he got into that mental space to score runs.

”Speaking about the Australians in the teams, he said, “We have been playing with Australians for the last two –three seasons of the IPL. So if anything has changed it’s the form I guess. If you look at a (Glenn) Maxwell (for example), he plays the same way – be it the World Cup or here.

The Australians will bring in a lot of inputs on what we are going to do for tomorrow and help us make plans for some of the overseas players. Hopefully things will go our way.”Discussing their opposition for their opening match - Kings XI Punjab – Binny said, “They have played good cricket last year.

They have players in form as well coming from the World Cup. But it’s important that we stick to our strengths which we have spoken about in the last couple of days. It’s about going about executing our plans and basically trying to grab the momentum early in the game, that’s the plan for tomorrow.

They are a good team and we have to respect them. Whoever plays better cricket and holds their nerve on that day will win.”When asked for his thoughts on how big a factor home advantage would be in the contest – Pune is KXIP’s adopted home venue and the match against RR will be their first outing as a home side – Binny explained, “Home advantage will play a role if you have played five-six matches at a venue and you know how the surface is playing so you can pick your bowling or batting side based on your knowledge.

The knowledge also helps teams plan and assess a par-score on the particular pitch. They are not going to be sure and we are not too sure as well. It’s about getting into the game and seeing how the wicket plays, take the first three-four overs (to assess) and base it on how the wicket is playing tomorrow.

”“Most of us Indian players have played at this venue before. It’s about us passing on the information on how this wicket generally plays,” Binny said.   .

Source: http://www.iplt20.com/news/2015/more-news/5805/quick-stats-m1-kkr-vs-mi