In a big blow to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), two of their Australian players Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch are set to miss first five matches for the KKR franchise in the upcoming edition of IPL due to their international commitments. KKR mentor David Hussey confirmed the unavailability of Aussie duo of Finch and Cummins.
It is worth mentioning that, both Cummins and Finch are part of Australia squad for the ongoing tour of Pakistan.
The confirmation
"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 further added.
While talking about KKR’s choice of wicketkeeper, Hussey totally denied that they lack a quality wicketkeeper. According to the former Australia batsman, KKR are “well versed in the wicketkeeping department.”
“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 in IPL 2022
The inaugural match of the IPL 2022 edition is scheduled to be played on March 26, between defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), at the Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai and the final match of the tournament will take place on May 29.
KKR full squad for IPL 2022
Shreyas Iyer (captain), Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, 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
