Shreyas Iyer can’t seem to catch a break. Returning to lead the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after two years, the skipper has been denied home advantage by none other than their own pitch curator. Having three ace spinners in their lineup: Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, and Varun Chakaravarthy, KKR has been adamant about playing on spin-friendly pitches at home.
But Eden Gardens pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee has straight out rejected the idea of having spin-friendly pitches in Kolkata.
“The pitches won’t be like the World Cup. There will be sporting pitches. It will have bounce. The teams have not demanded anything,” he said when asked about what type of pitches we’ll see for KKR’s home matches.
Will the pace-friendly pitch at Eden Gardens affect KKR’s campaign?
Although it’s not what Shreyas Iyer wanted, it could eventually help them. Their costly pick, Mitchell Starc, should thrive on bounce pitches, which could be close to his home conditions in Australia. Similarly, their star all-rounder, Andre Russell, who has a habit of striking, can benefit from the pace-friendly conditions as well.
The young crop of fast bowlers in Harshit Rana and Chetan Sakariya. They also have experienced a pacer in Vaibhav Arora and all-rounder Ramandeep Singh, who can chip in helpful conditions as well.
KKR squad for IPL 2024
Shreyas Iyer (c), Phil Salt, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, Sherfane Rutherford, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, KS Bharat (wk), Nitish Rana (vc), Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Chetan Sakariya, Vaibhav Arora, Mitchell Starc, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma.
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