Internet Desk: Two times IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Simon Katich on Saturday said the team management is expecting that their spinners would play the key role in the Indian Premier League match against low in confidence Royal Challengers Bangalore tomorrow.
“We saw that spinners played a major role in the match between RCB and Kings XI Punjab’s yesterday. Bangalore spinners did well, and so did Axar Patel and Glenn Maxwell.
I think spin will play a big role. We have a number of spinners in the squad and they are performing well,” Katich told reporters on the eve of the IPL match tomorrow.
Katich is hopeful that KKR batsmen would bat well against RCB spinners and help the team to register an important win to stay in hunt for the play-offs.
“We wish to bat well against spin to register a win and stay in the hunt for entering into the knockout stage.”
On Nathan Coulter-Nile’s head injury, Katich said he should be ready for the game.
“He was hit by Daniel Christian and was quite shaken that day. These days any head injuries, we have to be very cautious as this is dangerous part of the game. He was hit on the head and on the helmet but was protected. For the last couple of days he has been little off colour. But he should be ready for the game,” said the coach.
Asked whether KKR would have it easy against a low-on- confidence RCB, Katich said, “Not at all. T20 is an amazing game you don’t turn up with wrong attitude. Last time we played against Pune we had a poor start, we didn’t executive our plans well, particularly after the powerplay was finished and it cost us the game. We have to start a fresh game tomorrow.”
Katich said like most of the other teams, they too are not flying some of their players for away games.
“Now, we have 23 in the squad. We left behind six players. We want to make sure not everybody went through.
Given the schedule most of the teams are doing the same (not taking everybody along),” he said.