KKR's strategy will be to make spin-friendly pitches: Aakash Chopra

Former cricketer Aakash Chopra believes that Kolkata Knight Riders will build spin-friendly pitches in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, which is slated to begin on March 22. When it comes to the two-time champions, they will play their first game against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the iconic Eden Gardens, and ahead of that, Chopra added that the Shreyas Iyer-led side has quality spinners in their ranks and the surface will support them a lot.

Analysing their spinners, Chopra mentioned that Sunil Narine is someone who always features in the playing XI and even though he isn’t someone who picks up a lot of wickets, the veteran cricketer is extremely economical. Other than that, they also have the likes of Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma, who have done well in the last edition of the competition. They picked up 20 and 1o wickets respectively, and can once again prove to be dangerous. 

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“As soon as I think about spin, I don't know why, but my mind goes towards Kolkata. Kolkata's strategy will be to make spin-friendly pitches. They have Sunil Narine, who always plays in the XI. He is not a wicket-taker, it's not that he takes four-wicket hauls, but he is always economical,” said Chopra on his YouTube channel.

“After that, they have an amazing bowler in Varun Chakaravarthy whose stature grew suddenly last year and he was absolutely stellar. Then they have Suyash Sharma. So these are three frontline spinners who will play in the XI for sure,” Chopra added.

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KKR also have a formidable pace unit. They have spent INR 24.75 crore to sign Australia international Mitchell Starc, who can prove to be a match-winner. They also have the likes of Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora, who have done well for KKR in the last edition of the competition. Other than that, they have the likes of Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, and Venkatesh Iyer among other pace options. Among foreign options, they have signed Dushmantha Chameera, who replaced Gus Atkinson, after the latter decided to back out.