IPL 2018: KKR batting coach believes they will enter the season as underdogs

The Kolkata Knight Riders batting coach, Simon Katich, has admitted that his team will enter as the underdogs in the IPL 2018. The two-time champions are set to lock horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore in their first game of the season. They will be hosting the RCB side at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Ahead of the marquee clash, Katich tipped the opposition as one of the joint favorites for the season.

As per the quotes in Sportstarlive, Simon Katich remarked that despite the odds being against the Knight Riders, the team is ready to prove people wrong. At the IPL 2018 auctions, the KKR camp made some very strange moves. They let go their successful skipper Gautam Gambhir as well.

“No doubt, we go in as underdogs as RCB is one of the joint favourites to win the title. We look forward to the challenge in proving people wrong. We are looking forward to a fantastic start to the IPL for us. Hopefully, we will get him (Virat Kohli) caught at the slips like last year,” Simon Katich quoted.

On the new KKR skipper

The void left by Gautam Gambhir will be a big one to fill. The KKR management appointed Dinesh Karthik as the new captain of the side. While many tipped it to be a rash move, some called it a masterstroke. Simon Katich believes that the captaincy has come at just the right time for Karthik.

“From captaincy point of view, he is in the perfect time of his career. He has done that with Tamil Nadu with a fair bit of success. He is a highly experienced player in the IPL, played for 10 years. I don’t think he will be under pressure,” Katich noted.

Big void to fill

Along with the void left by Gambhir, there is another big shoe to fill in the lineup. Manish Pandey had been a mainstay of the middle-order for the Knights. Simon admitted that it will be tough to fill the gap left by Pandey. He, however, is optimistic about the likes of Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana stepping up to the occasion.

“Manish did a very good job for us in the middle order for a number of years…We felt the squad was important and we could not just change that for one player. It’s a big role to fill but we have likes of Dinesh (Karthik) and (Nitish) Rana to fill in the role,” mentioned the KKR batting coach.

On the ball tampering scandal

Lastly, Simon Katich also spoke about the ruckus created back home in Australia. He had some words of motivation for the disgraced trio. Katich hopes that all three banned cricketers – Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft – will come back stronger after serving their suspensions.

“All three players — Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft — haven’t appealed the ban. They have taken it on their chin and Cricket Australia sent a strong message …They are all good young lads, unfortunately they made a bad mistake. I hope they come back bigger and better players,” mentioned the former cricketer.

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