The 2018-19 edition of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) is going full tilt with matches coming thick and fast. Next up, Kerala Blasters FC host a stumbling Delhi Dynamos FC side, who were outplayed by a dominant ATK unit on Wednesday. The home side, on the other hand, have had an ambitious start to the season, courtesy of notable performances against ATK and Mumbai City FC, which saw them earn four points from a possible six.

Significant to Kerala’s impressive start to the current season has been their ever-present skipper Sandesh Jhingan. The defender’s reputation has grown from strength to strength over the years and ahead of the fixture between the two clubs, indiansuperleague.com caught up with him for an exclusive interview. Here are the excerpts:

Your take on Kerala’s previous match against Mumbai?

Disappointed because I think we dominated most parts of the game. To concede so late is always hard to digest, but that’s football. We’ve been on the side of scoring late as well, so you know, it’s okay. It’s disappointing because we deserved the win, but as I said, that’s football and we can’t change it, so (better to) just get over it. We’ve got a game tomorrow, so we will work hard for it and hope to get three points.

As a captain, how do you feel about your team going into the second home fixture?

Yes, always confident no matter what. In the preseason, we won all our games, kept clean sheets there as well and the way we’re performing in the last two games is also good. Confidence is high and we’ll look to take this confidence into a match-winning performance tomorrow. Let’s see what happens.

Who are you looking to contain in the opposition?

I think the whole team is really strong. I always believe the strength of a team is in the togetherness. I don’t like to single out players in my team or in the other team. They’re a good side that have played before. They have a Spanish coach, but if I have to single out a player, I would say (Lallianzuala) Chhangte is a good player. Romeo (Fernandes) and Pritam (Kotal) are also there. The first task you know is all the same, but I’d like to keep it as a team rather than single anyone out.

Your experience in the India vs People’s Republic of China match?

It was a good experience. China is a good side, they play good football, they have a very experienced coach as well, so not conceding was incredible. To play there was a good feeling, we enjoyed the game a lot. I’ve always said that the strength of our national team is that we defend together, we die together and that’s what we did against China, like we’ve been doing for the past 3-4 years. Everyone put in an effort, everyone worked hard together as a team and we deserved the point. We need to play games like this more often. We’re hopefully ready for the AFC Asian Cup.