Wrist spinners play a big role in T20: Kallis

All ears: Kolkata Knight Riders players listen intently as head coach Jacques Kallis gives instructions during a training session.

All ears: Kolkata Knight Riders players listen intently as head coach Jacques Kallis gives instructions during a training session.   | Photo Credit: PTI

Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla are Knight Riders’ spin twins

Kolkata Knight Riders is keeping its options open ahead of its Indian Premier League opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday.

KKR head coach Jacques Kallis on Friday gave away little while fielding questions on the team composition and other aspects related to the game. Excerpts:

Combating RCB: You want to start off the tournament well. RCB is a good side. A team that starts off well is the team that knows its players' roles and where they fit in and how they settle down. We have a good record against them and want to make sure we play some good cricket.

Mitchell Starc’s absence: Unfortunately Starc got injured, but we have a replacement in (Tom) Curran. We look forward to some exciting stuff from Tom. Should stand up and play a big role in Mitchell’s absence.

Wrist spinners’ impact: Wrist spinners play a big role in this format. A mystery bowler is slightly difficult to pick than the conventional players. We have a couple (Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla), we are looking forward to some exciting times.

Karthik’s batting position: Depends on the conditions, situations of the game. We will come up with different strategies for different situations and be flexible in our batting order. But, at the moment, he would probably bat in the middle-order.

On Shubman Gill: He seems a good youngster. All our youngsters are pretty good. Hopefully, the young guys will learn a lot from the experience and become better players.

Bowling combination: It depends on conditions. The team will depend on what condition we play in and combinations we play on all types of wicket.

KKR starts as underdogs: I think everybody starts as an underdog, everyone's a little bit nervous for the first game of the tournament.

Virat Kohli plans: We got plans for all batters. One batter doesn't make a team. When you fall into the trap of one batter then you are focusing on wrong things, you need to focus on all batters.

Last year KKR bowled out RCB for 49: We will have to assess the wicket closer to the game. I think it will be a good wicket. Hopefully it (the big-margin win) does happen again for us.