Gujarat Lions have had a successful maiden IPL season so far, with seven wins from 11 matches. Now, as they face their last three opponents in the league phase, starting with Royal Challengers Bangalore, their aim is to enter the playoffs as the top-ranked team on the table. “We had an opportunity to cement the top spot. Now we face some tough competition in our last three games in RCB, MI and KKR,” Brad Hodge, the Lions’ coach said ahead of the match in Bengaluru. “It is always tricky when it comes down to the business end but we will just remain focused on our performance and hopefully what we do is good enough.” As they take on RCB, the Lions will be without their captain and batting mainstay, Suresh Raina, who is on paternity leave. While conceding Raina will be a huge loss, Hodge was confident the team has enough batting talent to fill in for the skipper and one-down batsman. “Raina is not coming. This will be the first match that he misses in his entire IPL career. He is there with his wife for the birth of his child,” Hodge said. In all likelihood Brendon McCullum will take on the leadership role tomorrow. “It is a huge loss. Anyone that has scored close to 4000 runs in the tournament is going to be a loss. Having said that, we have players in our line-up who can step into his role. We have (Dwayne) Smith, McCullum, Finch, Karthik, Jadeja, Bravo – all of these guys are match-winners who can step up and win a game from any position. We are yet to decide who will fill in the No. 3 position. We were hopeful that he would fly in but we have just received the information that it is unlikely. We will make a call tomorrow.” Even as the statistics suggest that teams batting second have dominated VIVO IPL 2016, Hodge is confident that the Lions have enough versatility in their ranks to chase or defend a score. “We have got most bases covered. We have a fairly good defensive bowling attack to prevent teams from scoring big. We also have a pretty dynamic batting line-up that can chase down big scores. We have similar powers that RCB do and we have a good bowling to boot,” he said.