The Eden Gardens wicket has been under the spotlight since the opening match of IPL 2025 on March 22.

The hosts had lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru by seven wickets with 22 balls remaining after Phil Salt and Virat Kohli had taken their bowlers to the cleaners.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane and head coach Chandrakant Pandit has hinted that they would have preferred spin-friendly conditions considering the composition of their squad.

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) are unwilling to take any risks and the groundsmen have prepared two pitches for their clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday. The wickets are in sharp contrast to the one that was in use for the RCB game.

One of the tracks has a minimal amount of grass content, much less than the opening game. But the other surface looks almost grassless, rather barren from a distance.

On Tuesday evening, CAB president Snehasish Ganguly had a lengthy discussion with curator Sujan Mukherjee and the duo had a look at that extremely dry wicket for quite some time.

From the Sunrisers camp, pacer Mohammed Shami and bowling coach Muthiah Muralidaran also had a few words with Mukherjee during their optional training session at the Eden.

“It will be a good pitch,” was all Snehasish said later.

Mukherjee, though, claimed the dry surface did have a bit of grass on it. “It’s not a completely dry turf.

“Yes, the extra amount of grass has been cut. That’s one reason why it’s looking so dry. But one can’t call it a barren wicket,” he told The Telegraph later in the evening.

The curator’s words aside, it was learnt that not enough watering has been done on the two pitches, particularly the one on the drier side, which is likely to be used for Thursday’s clash.

“A little bit of water was sprinkled on the drier wicket, while the other one — likely to be used for the Lucknow Super Giants game (on April 8) — underwent more watering,” a CAB official stated.

The CAB continues to deny any kind of pressure from the Knight Riders for a spin-friendly track, but the look of the pitches suggests they will be slow with every possibility of more turn and purchase for the spinners.

Too much of turn may also backfire for the Knights as the Sunrisers have seasoned leg-spinner Adam Zampa in their ranks. The Knights, however, are quite clear about the wicket they want.

“Our standard request has been pitches that offer good contest between bat and ball so that the toss doesn’t become a deciding factor.

“We would never want pitches like those in Bangladesh, which are extremely sluggish. Just a surface where there’s even contest,” a KKR official said.