KKR are sure of Sunil Narine's action and his prospect of featuring in the tournament opener

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are supposed to have the thinnest squad among all the eight teams for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). While they’ve banked on their tried and tested players like Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine, there are issues with both the cricketers. Lynn is injury prone whereas the Caribbean off-spinner was recently reported for an illegal action in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). However, Simon Katich feels that he will play in their opening encounter and make the difference in the very first game.

KKR will play their first game of the tournament against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Sunday at the iconic Eden Gardens where they will get the immense support from the home crowd. The team will be led by the new captain this time as they appointed Dinesh Karthik at the helm even as Robin Uthappa will play deputy to him. The fans would be praying that their fringe players don’t get injured in the middle of the tournament as they don’t have able replacements for them.

Narine opening is an advantage

KKR assistant coach Simon Katich is hopeful that Sunil Narine will feature in the first game for their team and his bowling action should not be a problem.

“Obviously there were some issues recently in the PSL where he was playing for Lahore [Qalandars], but he’s since gone back to Trinidad and spent a lot of time with [spin-bowling consultant] Carl Crowe, working on his action. Carl’s his coach, last few years he’s been working with him since he first got reported. He’s done a lot of hard work there, we’re pretty confident with where he’s at with the action at the moment, so hopefully we’ll see him back out there on Sunday,” he said in the press conference.

He also went on to say that if Narine opens for them, it will be an added advantage for them much like the last season. “We felt that Sunny opening was going to give us an advantage with the balance of our team and also free him up to play a role at the top of the order, which he did a very, very good job of. He’s primarily one of our main spinners, if not our number one spinner, but given the balance of our team, you never know where he’s going to bat, so it all depends on what we feel the best combination is,” Katich added.

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