Delhi Daredevils are expected to get a boost ahead of their IPL match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday, with pacer Zaheer Khan likely to recover from an injury and return to action, the side's assistant coach, Praveen Amre, said.
Zaheer is struggling with fitness concerns since joining Daredevils' training session ahead of IPL Season 8 but Amre assured that the left-arm pacer will soon take the field.
"We are hopeful that by the 26th game he will be fit, but it depends on the physio. Like today, he did bowl in the nets, so we are very positive about it," Amre said, after Delhi's six-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla, in New Delhi, on Monday night.
The Jean-Paul Duminy-led side did bounce back from two opening defeats to snap a 11-match losing streak in the cash-rich T20 league, but the team suffered their ninth straight home loss when they were outplayed by defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders.
Amre, though, is still confident of Daredevils coming up with a good show.
"We still have three games here and the two away wins were also important for us. I think the next game we play against Mumbai Indians will be very important for us," said the former India cricketer.
"We can't complain about the wicket. Whatever wicket is there we have to play good cricket and I think today we were just short of 20 runs," he added.
Opting to field, Kolkata Knight Riders restricted Delhi to 146 for eight and then reached the target in 18.1 overs. Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla and man-of-the-match Umesh Yadav shared two wickets each.
Amre was all praise for the Kolkata bowlers.
"We must give credit to the KKR bowlers because they bowled extremely well to give just 36 runs in the first Powerplays. I will say that Umesh bowling four overs for 18 runs was very crucial, because we could not even get runs in the death overs.
"That was the time we knew that we were 20 runs short, especially on the Delhi wicket. 170-plus is a par score, but you must give credit to the KKR bowlers because they bowled brilliantly," said Amre.
