In what comes as a big blow to the Kolkata Knight Riders, their marquee overseas players Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch are set to miss the opening five matches for the franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season. Both Cummins and Finch are part of the Australia squad for the ongoing tour of Pakistan.
With the Knight Riders beginning the IPL Season 15 on March 26 against Chennai Super Kings, the franchise would not be able to field a full-strength XI. Mentor David Hussey confirmed that the Aussie duo of Cummins and Finch isn’t available for the first five games.
“Well, it is a concern, you want your best players available, but international cricket should be the para-limit. Every cricketer should want to play international cricket for their countries so they have commitments that way. I think Cummins and Finch will miss the first five games but they will be cricket fit and cricket ready,” said Hussey during a virtual press conference.
“So, once they hit the ground running, both quality people and they will fit into the dressing room perfectly well,” he stated further.
It has to be noted that Australia’s tour of Pakistan ends on April 05 while KKR’s fifth match of the season is on April 10. Though the Aussie players, on international duty, will get free post April 05, the bio-bubble regulations would keep them away from selection for a few more days
In Finch and Cummins’ absence, KKR are likely to give Sam Billings and Mohammad Nabi two overseas spots in the team. Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are certain to feature in the playing XI unless they have any fitness concerns.
When asked if the Knight Riders lack a quality wicket-keeper, Hussey denied saying: “No, I think we bought well in the auction. We have Sheldon Jackson; he has dominated the Ranji Trophy and he is a good striker of the ball and he has been with the team for a few years now. We also have Sam Billings; he has played Test cricket for England and he has kept wickets for England in the shorter formats. We are pretty well versed in the wicketkeeping department and it is up to us as the support staff to get the best out of our players.”
KKR Squad: Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Chamika Karunaratne, Baba Indrajith, Ashok Sharma, Pratham Singh, Abhijeet Tomar, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammed Nabi, Aman Khan, Umesh Yadav.
