Kolkata Knight Riders’ trump card revealed by captain Gautam Gambhir

The captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders Gautam Gambhir is setting his eyes on the Indian Premier League trophy for the third time after guiding them to victory two times in 2012 and 2014. No team has won the trophy three times and looking at the strength of the squad the Kolkata Knight Riders have they could well be the first team to do so.

With Kolkata suffering a setback when Andre Russell was ruled out of the cash-rich league due to doping charges, the team has quite rightly strengthened their bowling attack at the auction. Gambhir has confidence in his team that they can go on to lift the trophy for the third time and expects his bowlers to come out strong when the league starts.

Gambhir quoted Cricinfo “Hopefully, these guys can live up to their reputation. Someone like Boult can be very useful for us who can swing the ball up front at a reasonable pace. We have strengthened our attack with pace, I thought we made a very sensible move at the auction.”

“We felt last year that wickets weren’t that helpful for spinners. Someone like Sunil Narine is a big threat in any conditions but we realized that there wasn’t a lot of help for our spinners so we went for genuine fast bowlers. We have someone like Umesh Yadav and Ankit Rajpoot and three quality foreign fast bowlers as well. Our bowling attack is really good and hopefully, we can utilize that”

Gambhir was also all praise for Kuldeep Yadav who had an exceptional debut against Australia at Dharamshala. Kuldeep absolutely dismantled the Aussie line up taking four wickets in the first innings of the final test. Gambhir seems to be overwhelmed with the youngster and put emphasis on the fact that Kuldeep hardly bowls a bad delivery.

“From a skills point of view, he is pretty consistent. If he bowls a bad ball, it is usually a fuller ball. He hardly bowls a short delivery. That kind of consistency for a wrist spinner is a massive quality to have. If you have to mistake you’d much rather make it fuller than shorter. He hardly bowls long-hops which are a big quality to have.

“Kuldeep has a big heart, that is what you look for in any spinner who wants to go on and play for India. Hopefully, he can play for a very long time, just let him enjoy his game and express himself.”