Kolkata Knight Riders certainly missed Varun Chakravarthy’s services in their six-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur on Wednesday. The senior spinner had sustained a fracture in his left leg, which had sidelined him from the RCB clash, where the KKR bowlers looked almost clueless before centurion Virat Kohli.

However, it was learnt that Varun’s condition, at present, is better, and there’s optimism over his availability in the Knight Riders’ must-win game against the high-flying Gujarat Titans at Eden Gardens on Saturday.

“Varun did sustain a fracture. But the cast is off his leg now. So, at the moment, the team is optimistic about his presence versus Gujarat Titans,” a KKR insider said
on Thursday.

Acknowledging how much of a difference Varun’s absence versus RCB made in terms of the game’s outcome, head coach Abhishek Nayar also expressed hope of the spinner’s return for Saturday’s do-or-die game. “It is an open secret that we have done really well with the Sunny (Sunil Narine)-Varun combination. It’s unfortunate that we have missed him (Varun) a lot this season,” Nayar said after the Knights’ loss to RCB.

“This is the second time he has had a fracture, which is unfortunate for him. You will always miss a Varun Chakravarthy.

“But yeah, we’re always excited to go back (home). We have our fans there, and we’re looking to make sure when Varun comes back in the next game, we get our strong bowling side back together and use home conditions to our advantage,” Nayar added.

Wednesday’s game in Raipur was the third Varun missed in this IPL, after being ruled out in the home matches against Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants last month due to a finger injury on his left hand.

Though young pacer Kartik Tyagi put in a decent effort on Wednesday, KKR’s bowling overall lacked a fair amount of penetration, which further underlined how dependent they are on the Varun-Narine spin duo.

The pitch for Saturday’s clash at the Eden is expected to have some purchase for the bowlers. “There will be some assistance for the bowlers for sure,” curator Sujan Mukherjee told The Telegraph.

“You can get to 200-plus on this surface, but for that, you need to bat well. The runs have to be earned. It’s not a dull wicket where one can just throw his bat at everything and post a total of 250 or so.”

The Titans shouldn’t be complaining, given how their pace trio of Kagiso Rabada, Jason Holder and Mohammed Siraj have been performing of late. The Knights, too, would want to field their strongest bowling combination in such conditions.