Kolkata, Apr 1 (PTI) Having started their IPL season on an ominous note, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders returned to the familiar home territory expecting favourable conditions, but early signs suggest the surfaces at the Eden Gardens may not entirely align with their preferences.
While there was no outright criticism, the body language of the KKR think-tank and the guarded response from head coach Abhishek Nayar hinted at a degree of unease, even as he firmly shut the door on using conditions as an excuse.
Repeatedly quizzed about the pitch on the eve of their match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Nayar chose his words carefully, even joking that he might get “siphoned off for something else” by the anti-corruption unit, but his messaging remained consistent — KKR will deal with what is on offer without any “excuses”.
“I think the beauty of our sport is the fact that it is unpredictable. When you’re explaining cricket to someone who doesn’t know the game, you tell them that if the sun is out, the pitch is good; if the clouds are in, the bowlers are in. That’s the beauty of the game — you want the unexpected,” Nayar said.
KKR, in their title defence, had finished eighth last season — their worst since 2009 — losing four of their seven matches and winning just twice at Eden as it had raised questions around conditions that seemingly did not suit their spin strengths.
Those concerns appear to persist despite a complete overhaul in coaching staff and squad.
On the eve of their first home game, skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Nayar spent considerable time inspecting the pitch alongside curator Sujan Mukherjee, with Rahane even lying down to assess the surface.
The pitch, later watered and lightly rolled, had a greenish tinge adding to the uncertainty.
“Just because there’s grass on the pitch, it doesn’t change how we look at the game. We as players and support staff have to be professional enough to take what’s put in front of us and run with it. Those are circumstances — sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.” Just before his media interaction, SRH head coach Dainel Vettori said he was surprised to see a green cover and expected not much of turn for the spinners.
But Nayar, in a guarded tone, said he was not surprised and blamed the unseasonal rains for the greentop.
“Am I surprised? I’m not, because there has been rain around over the last couple of days. It’s not easy for the groundsmen as well. So whatever is prepared for us, we’ll try to make the most of it. We’ll try to play the kind of cricket we can without any excuses. At the end of it, our honest judgement is that whatever we get, we try and put our best foot forward. No excuses.” However, under the guarded tone could be a familiar subtext.
Last season, KKR’s inability to get surfaces suited to their spin strengths had become a talking point, and the issue appears far from settled.
“I honestly feel, having coached at different levels and been part of setups where pitches are developed, it’s not always easy. Every pitch, every franchise, every state has its own soil, and it’s not simple to curate surfaces, especially with back-to-back matches,” he said.
“There is a science to it, but when the weather doesn’t support you, it’s not always possible to prepare the pitch you want.” Even as he distanced himself from past narratives, Nayar subtly acknowledged the limitations teams face in dictating conditions.
“I don’t know what the narrative was before. For me, the narrative is that when you enter the ground, you focus on what’s in front of you and play accordingly. I don’t like to overcomplicate things because our players are used to different conditions — they play red-ball cricket, they play Ranji Trophy.
“As a team, you don’t really know what your advantage is. You can prepare a turning pitch and it can work against you.” In T20 cricket, he stressed, conditions can often be overridden by individual brilliance, further downplaying the idea of chasing tailor-made surfaces.
“Yes, you want preferences, but in T20 cricket one player can change the game — that’s the nature of the format. For me, a true pitch that supports both batting and bowling is a good cricketing surface because viewers enjoy it and players enjoy it.
“As long as it’s neutral and not one-sided, I’m happy. A pitch that is purely for batters or purely for bowlers — that’s just my opinion — but a good, fair pitch is what matters.” The pitch in question is the same surface that hosted the New Zealand-South Africa semifinal during the T20 World Cup, where 170 was chased down in under 13 overs on March 4.
With three back-to-back home games lined up in a week, followed by another on April 19 before a month-long break due to the upcoming Assembly elections, this home phase of four fixtures could define KKR’s season. PTI TAP PDS PDS
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