Internet Desk: Key member of World T20 champions West Indies team, Andre Russell missed the first practice session of Kolkata Knight Riders. The Jamaican is back in the Caribbean to be a part of the celebrations. Another West Indian in the Knight Riders side Sunil Narine has also not returned back from home after attending his father’s funeral. Also missing out on the first day practice session was Bangladesh all rounder Shakib al Hasan and Colin Munro of New Zealand.
The two time champions in IPL started their preparation under head coach former South African all rounder Jaques Kallis and assistant coach Simon Katich. Another key member of the support staff, Wasim Akram is supposed to join the squad on April 07.
Meanwhile Gautam Gambhir and his boys sweated it out at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday. The Knight Riders will start their IPL campaign against Delhi Daredevils on April 10 at Eden Gardens.
The Knights have brought only seven players from this year’s auction and have a squad size of 22 players, which is among of the smallest of the sides. The two times champions will be bolstered by the addition of New Zealand all-rounder Colin Munro, who was brought for INR 30 lakhs in the auction. Munro has to his credit, the second-fastest T20I fifty against Sri Lanka. He can also be used as an effective medium-pace bowling option. So, he will be a handy replacement for Ryan ten Doeschate.
Other key buys for KKR this season was Jaydev Unadkat (INR 1.6 crores), Ankit Rajpoot (INR 1.5 crores) and Australian John Hastings (INR 1.3 crores). The Knights also roped in Rajagopal Sathish (20 lakhs), Manan Sharma (10 lakh) and Jason Holder (70 lakh).
The team bears a good look of youth and experience with plenty of talent and utility cricketers at their disposal. Let us have a look at their strengths and weaknesses.
Batting: Gambhir and Uthappa will continue to open. However, the skipper’s form has not been good off late but a quality player that he is, a turnaround might be just a matter of time. Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan , Suryakumar Yadav, Chris Lynn, Shakib al Hasan and the horde of all-rounders give batting the depth. Munro adds to the explosive brand of the batting this format demands.
Spin bowling: The two times champions have heavily depended on West Indian mystery spinner Sunil Narine. But one will have to wait and see how effective Narine is with his remodelled action. The Knights also have in their ranks quality tweakers like leg-spinner Chawla, chinaman bowler Kuldeep and slow left-arm orthodox bowler Shakib. One can expect the spinners to play a huge role on the rank turners in Eden Gardens as spin looks to be the strength of KKR.
Pacers: The pace bowling will be spearheaded by South African Morne Morkel. He will have Umesh Yadav to support him. Pace bowling has been one of the weaknesses of the side last season but this year around the Knights management seem to have sorted it. The additions of Unadkat, Rajpoot, Holder and Hastings are likely to strengthen the attack. One should also not forget Russell. The development of Russell as cricketer has been phenomenal. On his day he can win games with either bat or ball as was evident in the recently concluded World T20.