Kevin Pietersen expects to be fit for Delhi Daredevils’ next game, against  Sunrisers Hyderabad, on Friday in Dubai.

The England star batsman has been battling a finger injury that has kept him out of Delhi’s first three games in the ongoing Indian Premier League.

“I’m going to hopefully be back in the next game after I train well for a week,” he said. 

“I have trained a couple of days, but it hasn’t been an ideal start going into this tournament. I had good practice for a couple of weeks in London, but then hurt myself and have had three weeks off. I just need another good week of training and then I’ll be back."

Despite being on the sidelines, the Delhi captain has been present at the ground for all the franchise’s games in the UAE.

“It’s imperative for me to play a significant role as a senior figure in the dressing room,” Pietersen told iplt20.com. 

“You need to reach out to the players and help them out. Yes, I have handed the reigns of the team to DK (Dinesh Karthik) but I’ve also got to help him. 

“We’re all a part of the senior group in the squad and the onus is on us to look after each other. The young guys need guidance from us and we too need to know how they want to go about things.”

Delhi have won just one match, against Kolkata Knight Riders, but have lost to Royal Challengers in Sharjah and Chennai Super Kings in Abu Dhabi on Monday. 

Pietersen, however, is unperturbed by the setbacks and believes there is still a long way to go in the tournament.

“Yes, we didn’t start the tournament as well as we wanted to but the IPL is a marathon, not a sprint. We do not need to worry about the first three-five games. 

“As long as we get into a winning streak with game sixth-tenth, we’re going to finish this tournament really well,” he added.