A good one hour remained for the start of Kolkata Knight Riders’ training session at Eden Gardens on Wednesday. But their spin aces Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine were already out in the middle with the team’s video analyst, engrossed in a deep conversation while having a look at the pitch.
Narine, in fact, had a separate session with the ball under the supervision of the Knights’ spin bowling coach Carl Crowe.
For sure, the 22-yard surface in the centre will be one of the key elements on Thursday when defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders clash against a struggling Sunrisers Hyderabad — last year’s runners-up — at the Eden.
In contrast to the tournament opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, a much drier wicket will be in use. Expecting the pitch to be a rank turner may not be right though. It’s a black-soil wicket, while the nature of the soil underneath is on the
harder side, claimed the Cricket Association of Bengal groundsmen.
But yes, the wicket should favour spinners more, and one shouldn’t be too surprised if it turns out to be a two-paced track.
Going by the Knights’ practice session on Wednesday, a change or two in their XI cannot be ruled out altogether. Even Moeen Ali arrived early and bowled for quite some time, at one of the centre nets.
Considering the whitish colour of the pitch, including the England off-spinner all-rounder alongside Varun and Narine may not be a bad idea. In that case, Australian quick Spencer Johnson, who wasn’t at the day’s optional practice, may have to sit out.
In these conditions, Moeen’s bowling does become a factor. And he had proved so in his only appearance so far this edition against the Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati, where he made optimum use of a wee bit of assistance on offer for the tweakers.
With the bat too, Moeen can be more than a handful.
Will the Knights also tweak their opening combination? Well, Rahmanullah Gurbaz had an intense batting session and conversations with head coach Chandrakant Pandit as well as KKR CEO and managing director Venky Mysore.
So, will the Afghan keeper-batter join Narine at the top of the order instead of South African Quinton de Kock, who was also absent from Wednesday’s training? That remains to be seen.
The pitch factor and their final XI matters aside, putting up a collective effort with the bat has to be the Knights’ first priority. True, spin-wise, they are better placed on paper than their opponents. But the Sunrisers too have experienced leg-spinner Adam Zampa and the impressive Zeeshan Ansari in their arsenal. Both of them could
be undaunted to bowl on this dry surface.
Besides, there’s head coach Daniel Vettori and bowling coach Muthiah Muralidaran to provide them with inputs.
Rather, given the explosive nature of the Sunrisers’ batting group, if people like Travis Head, his opening partner Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and even young Aniket Verma click, they are quite capable of taking the pitch out of the equation.
Power-hitter Heinrich Klaasen hasn’t been practising the last two days though.
“We respect the opposition and their bowlers. We also respect their batters, but it’s important for our group, our players to understand that the opposition also have to do their research on our team,” Knights’ mentor Dwayne Bravo said.
“So, we’ll look to be smart in our approach with the bat and try to make sure that our group stays fresh so that they can go on and perform well.”