KKR have several injury and unavailability concerns in IPL 2026.
Faf du Plessis has urged Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to prepare spin-friendly decks in IPL 2026 to cover for injury and unavailability concerns in the pace department. The Knight Riders will be without Harshit Rana and Mustafizur Rahman, while Matheesha Pathirana looks set to miss the start of the season.
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While dissecting the KKR squad on JioHotstar, Faf suggested that KKR should allow their spin giants, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, to come more into play. That’s only possible by preparing tracks that suit slow bowlers at Eden Gardens.
“If I were part of the KKR team management, I would ask the groundsman to make the wicket spin-friendly. KKR are blessed to have two absolute cannons in Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine. If they play on surfaces where they are not in contention, then you are losing those two cannons and your superpower. The pitch should be prepared keeping those two players in mind.”
The pitches at Eden Gardens have been a topic of debate for a while, and even Ajinkya Rahane was unhappy with the lack of home advantage last season, with some reports also suggesting friction between KKR management and the pitch curator. With Rahane at the helm again, it will be interesting to see whether the team’s demands are met this time, particularly as they need it now more than ever.
KKR won only two of their seven home games in IPL 2025, with one ending in a no-result. A major reason for their poor performances was the pitches, which were mostly flat and didn’t offer anything to their two quality spinners.
Spinners averaged 30.06 and conceded 8.47 runs per over across seven matches, despite Narine and Varun bowling 47% of the total overs here. Narine, in particular, didn’t find any success at all and was relatively expensive from his lofty standards.
The pitch suited batters out and out, with the run rate soaring up to 9.78 and a 200-score breached in six out of 13 full innings. However, KKR had Harshit Rana in the lineup, while Andre Russell was another decent operator in the death overs, to cover for the lack of consistent wickets from spinners.
This time, their pace attack will be among the weakest; most Indian options have either been ineffective or vulnerable in past seasons. Hence, the three-time champions need to ask for spin-friendly pitches to play the all-rounder, Anukul Roy, with two main spinners, which could involve mending sour relations with the pitch curator and convincing him to provide the home advantage.
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