XtraTime Web Desk: Kolkata Knight Riders coach Jaques Kallis on Friday claimed that his side has specific plans for the power packed RCB batting which boasts the likes of Virat Kohli, Brendon McCullum and AB de Villiers. The KKR coach exuded confidence ahead of his teams opening game in the IPL against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Eden Gardens on Sunday.
“We got plans for all the batters. One batter doesn’t make a team. When you fall into the trap of one batter then you are focussing on wrong things, you need to focus on all the batters,” said Kallis on the sidelines of the team’s training session at Eden Gardens.
Talking about combating the power packed RCB batting, Kallis said, “You want to start off the tournament well. RCB is a good side… A team that starts off well, are the teams who know their players’ roles and where they fit in and how they settle down. We have a good record against them and want to make sure we play some good cricket.”
Knights suffered a huge blow due to the absence of Mitchel Starc. According to the Knight Riders coach, “Unfortunately Starc got injured but we have got replacement in Curran. We look forward to some exciting stuff from Tom. Should stand up and play a big role in absence of Mitchell.”
The middle order batting of the Knights will revolve around their captain Dinesh Karthik. On being asked about Karthik’s batting order, Kallis said, “Again depending on the conditions, situations of the game…we won’t have a set plan we will come up with different strategies for different situations and be flexible in our batting order. But at the moment, he would probably bat in the middle order.”
Like the last few seasons this year also the Kolkata outfit has a decent bowling attack.
“It depends on conditions. When the wicket is going to spin, we got three good spinners (Kuldeep Yadav, Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla) and we have got some good seamers as well so again the teams are going to depend on what condition we play on and combinations we play on all types of wicket,” said Kallis on his bowlers.
Both KKR and RCB possess a few quality spinners in the likes of Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav and Kuldeep Chahal. The RCB leg spinner is in great form in recent times.
Sharing his thoughts on the wrist spinners, the former South African all rounder said, “Wrist spinners play a big role in this format. A mystery bowl is slightly difficult to pick than the conventional players. We have got a couple; we are looking forward to some exciting time.
The last time the two sides faced each other, Bangalore faced an embarrassment of getting bowled out for 49 runs. On being reminded of the win, Kallis said, “Again we will have to assess the wicket closer to the game. I think it will be a good wicket. Hopefully it (the big-margin win) does happen again for us. But we will have to see and have our plans in place. We will hope to execute them in the night with bat and ball.”