IPL 2025: Not Spin Or Pace, Otis Gibson Counting Bowlers As KKR's Strength; LSG Hope For Turn Of Fortunes
Otis Gibson feels Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers can continue to dominate opponents at the Eden Gardens in the Indian Premier League.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) assistant coach Otis Gibson feels bowling rather than spinners or pacers is their team’s strength ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Tuesday.
Varun Chakaravarthy and Vaibhav Arora are the joint-highest wickets-taker for KKR this season, with six scalps each to their name.
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What Gibson feels is helping KKR is the fact that the Indian fast bowlers have started to take wickets up top, which is helping their spinners to get control of the middle overs.
“Our two local bowlers upfront, bowled very well and took wickets in the power play, which then gives our two very good spinners, probably the two best spinners in the competition, Varun and Sunny (Sunil Narine), and that gives us the opportunity to take wickets in the middle overs," Otis Gibson said at the pre-match press conference on Monday.
“The key for us is to try and take wickets with the new ball, which we did. We will continue to try and do that going forward as well," he said.
Otis had special praise for Vaibhav, saying that him and Harshit Rana’s success has allowed KKR the option to leave out an international pacer as the team management trust in the young Indian bowlers.
“You look at the fact that in the last game, that we were able to leave out Spencer Johnson, the international player, to and play these two guys because we trust them," he said.
The KKR assistant coach highlighted the fact that Moeen Ali was picked in the last game (against Sunrisers Hyderabad) but not needed in the last game. Andre Russell has been amongst the wickets too, despite coming on to bowl sparingly.
Pant And Pitch
When asked about Rishabh Pant’s form, Gibson said: “We know how dangerous he can be. And of course, he hasn’t had any form yet. We hope that that continues this week as well."
As for the all-important pitch, Gibson is counting on a something similar to what was on display in the previous game for KKR’s bowlers to take advantage of despite the upcoming clash being an afternoon one.
“The pitch, hopefully, hopefully it plays like it played in the last game. Of course it’s a day game, so the pitch might not change too much over the course of 40 over it," he said.
“You know, we sort of prepare ourselves to play on any type of surface, but if the surface is similar to the one that we had last the last game, then then hopefully that will be a benefit to us," Gibson added.
Turn It Against
Local boy and LSG all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed feels the pitch will not be the same he is used to, while playing for Bengal.
“In domestic cricket, we play mostly our red ball games here (Eden Gardens), so the pitch is completely different. This is not that wicket.," Shahbaz said at the pre-match press conference on Monday.
“It is a little more challenging in red ball. Bowling here is very helpful especially for the pacers but looking at this wicket, as well as the last match, it seems that the ball will stop a bit here. I don’t think there will be any turn, but it will be a little slow," he added.
Shahbaz though is not worried despite conceding that the pitch is curated with Narine and Varun in mind, LSG too have good pacers in their ranks.
“It is a small ground (compared to the one in Lucknow) so runs are expected. But I think spinners will get some help. Our spinners are also doing very well. There will be help for them too," he said.
When asked about his skipper’s form, Shahbaz said: “He is working very hard on his batting. Our entire team is hopeful that when the crunch time comes, Rishabh Pant will score runs."
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