IPL 2021 in UAE: Power-hitting is ‘super strength’ for Rajasthan Royals’ Livingstone

England and Rajasthan Royals batsman Liam Livingstone has said power hitting is his “super strength” and is hopeful to continue batting the same way in the Indian Premier League 2021.

A destructive batsman who has close to 350 overall sixes to his name across formats, Livingstone wants to be as consistent as possible.

“Power-hitting is something that I’ve worked really hard at - trying to get that consistency. Ultimately, it’s sort of a super strength for me at the moment and hopefully, I can continue with it,” said Livingstone.

Currently in the midst of the season of his career, Livingstone is back with the Rajasthan and straight away means business.

Having been off the leash lately, scoring fluently with the help of a handful of sixes in most innings, the devastating batter spoke on a variety of topics ahead of the resumption of the IPL season.

“I’ve really enjoyed my cricket over the last two or three months. I certainly wouldn’t have expected to do what I’ve done - if you would’ve said at the start of the summer that this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have believed you. So, it’s nice to see my hard work of the last couple of years starting to pay off,” said Livingstone.

The hard-hitting Englishman had to withdraw midway into the first phase of IPL 2021, but says it was one of the toughest decisions he had to make.

“I had spent a lot of time away from home during the winter, living out of hotels. Ultimately, I guess the pressure of everything kind of built up to a point where I felt like I wasn’t in the best place to perform even if I was needed to,” said Livingstone. “The best decision for me personally and my own health was to go home and take some time off, and I think Royals management were kind enough to understand this and make everything easy for me. I feel there’s more to life than just cricket, and sometimes we sort of forget that we are actual human beings and sometimes we have to look after ourselves.

“I guess the decision I made at the time wasn’t an easy one, I wanted to stay with the Royals and try to help us win some games. But I think sometimes your mental and physical health is most important.

“But we’ve got a great opportunity to qualify for the play-offs. I feel like we’ve put together a really good squad, we’ve filled our overseas with good quality. We’ve got a lot of Indian talent in our group and hopefully, we can get our combinations right to get some points.”