NEW DELHI: Bangalore Royal Challengers skipper Rahul Dravid reckons three defeats in four matches has left his side tottering on the brink of disaster and the squad cannot afford another loss when they lock horns with Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League tie here on Wednesday.
The Bangalore side has so far managed just one win, that too against the tournament's favourite punching bag Mumbai Indians, which has the side languishing at the seventh place in the points tally.
Dravid said his side's back is against the wall and the team has no other way but to fight back.
"We are lagging behind in the tournament and every match from now on is important for us. At this stage, we just cannot afford to make a mistake," Dravid said here.
The former India captain, however, brushed aside suggestions that the average age of his side had anything to do with the results so far.
"It's not like that, we too have youngsters in the side. I think we are a good and balanced side with adequate experience. It's only that we have to combine well and play as a unit," he explained.
Dravid rued his team came agonisingly close to tame the Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday before eventually going down to the table-toppers.
"For 18 overs, we bowled well before things went haywire in the final two overs. The same happened while batting. We were always in the hunt but just could not make it in the end," he rued.
"Anyway, we played well in the match and I think we can take many positives from the tie," he added.
Asked if the cap on foreigners to play in a match had posed a problem for him, Dravid said, "As a captain, it's really a tough job to select some and leave out some. But I guess other captains are having the same problem."
Dravid was his diplomatic self when his comment was sought on the slapping controversy involving Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth, which resulted the off-spinner being banned for the rest of the IPL.
"I don't want to comment on it because I was not present there," he said.
Asked how the duo would share Indian team dressing room after the incident, Dravid said, "Everybody involved was mature enough and they know how to adjust in a team."
Turnaround is also the buzz word for former New Zealand captain and a key cog in the Bangalore think-tank Martin Crowe.
"It's a cliched line but we have to take it game by game. We have to assess the wicket well so that we can restrict our opponents to a total we can chase down or put up a score we can defend," he said.
"We would also need a large dose of luck, which we have not been having," he said.
