Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir has said that a quality spinner does not need a turning surface to perform.Talking about his team, the southpaw said that his team has the quality in the spin department. With the likes of Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, and Brad Hogg Kolkata have a very formidable spin attack.
“I have always believed that a quality spinner does not need a surface. A quality spinner will do well irrespective of what the surface is. If you have quality in your ranks, surfaces are out of the question,” Gambhir said. “We have that quality in our line-up and our spinners have actually bowled only four overs in most of the games,” he told a news conference on the eve of their match against Rising Pune Supergiants here.
Spinners have played an important role in Kolkata’s success in the recent times. Talking about his spinners he said that Kolkata has been able to dominate the opposition with the help of their spinners.
“Because you play three spinners all the time, sometimes spinners do get under-bowled at times. We have been a very spin dominating attack and we have got quality. That is why we control or dominate the opposition with that quality,” Gambhir said.
Kolkata are lying in the fourth position in the league table with six wins in ten matches.Their next match is against Rising Pune Supergiants, who are already out of the race for the play-offs. However, Gambhir said that taking them lightly will be a mistake as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side would play for pride in the remainder of the tournament.
“This is a format where you expect people to come and play freely. Whether they have got anything to lose or not doesn’t make a difference. We need to go out there and play good cricket and that is all that matters. We need to do well in all the three departments. When you turn out for any game as a professional cricketer you don’t think on those lines that you have got nothing to lose. The biggest thing that you have to lose is your pride,” the KKR skipper said.
“People play for pride and their jersey and they would be up for it. Rising Pune Supergiants are a quality side but they have not played that well in the tournament, but these things can happen. No one wants to turn out on the field and get back to a losing dressing room. It is going to be even stevens and hopefully, we can play our best cricket tomorrow.”
When asked about R Ashwin, who has been under-bowled by his skipper MS Dhoni, Gambhir said that use of spinner depends totally on the captain.
“There have been spinners who have done reasonably well in this tournament. Piyush Chawla has bowled really well for us. Sunil Narine coming back has done well for us, Shakib (Al Hasan) too has done well. It also depends on the captains on how they use the spinners. Sometimes if you don’t have that much of confidence in your spinners you might not even end up bowling their four overs,” he said.
“Amit Mishra (Delhi Daredevils) got two wickets in the previous game (against Sunrisers Hyderabad) but did not bowl his quota of four overs. It really depends on the captain as to how much confidence he has on his spinners,” Gambhir added.
KKR has turned Eden Gardens into a fortress as they have consistently performed well on the historic ground. The conditions at Eden Gardens suit KKR’s style of play perfectly.
When enquired about it, the left-hander said:
“I am always a believer of giving home advantage to the home side. There is nothing wrong in it. If you go and play in places like Australia or South Africa, there will always be a bounce on those kinds of wickets. If you come to India and play, you expect wickets to turn and there is nothing wrong in it irrespective of what the format is. In IPL, the wickets have been really good whether it is Eden Gardens or Bengaluru or Mumbai.”
“Obviously, home advantage does make a difference, especially with the crowd’s support. When the crowd is in your favour and cheering for you, it does give you an extra boost that you are looking for; especially when you play in places like Eden Gardens or Mumbai or Bengaluru.”
“Home advantage does not make that much of a difference but you need to be a bit clever in judging what a good total is on that particular wicket,” Gambhir said.