Dubai, Sep 12 (IANS) Delhi Capitals' batsman Shikhar Dhawan, who is currently the highest run-getter in the IPL 2021 season with 380 runs in eight matches, on Sunday said that it's important for the team to start performing well from the first match itself.

The second leg of the lucrative league will resume from September 19 here. Delhi Capitals will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first encounter of phase-2 on September 22.

"It's great to be back. There's a great environment within the team. All the boys are working very hard and I am looking forward to the IPL season. I am very excited to play the upcoming matches. It's very important to start on a high note. We need to do well from the first match itself and therefore we are working very hard for our first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. We have to bring our hard work into effect during matches and produce great results," said Dhawan, who has scored three fifties in the IPL 2021 season so far.

The 35-year-old added that the Delhi Capitals squad is even stronger for the second half of the season with batsman Shreyas Iyer returning to the side.

"We were in a certain flow in the first half of the season and then that flow was broken once the tournament was suspended. So we have to rebuild our energy and get back on the flow we were in. The good thing is that our team is well balanced and Shreyas Iyer is back in the side as well, so our team is even stronger now," he said.

Asked about getting acclimatised to the conditions in the UAE, the opening batsman said, "We'll beat the heat as well. It takes some time to get used to the humidity here since we were indoors for a while. But we've been doing this for so many years so we'll definitely beat the heat."

--IANS

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