Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) assistant coach Abhishek Nayar on Wednesday (September 2) insisted that the players are adapting quickly to the conditions in the United Arab Emirates ahead of the upcoming 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting on 19th September.
He also claimed that the KKR stars are in a “great frame of mind” and will all be “match-ready” in the next 3-4 days’ time after a couple of practice games, as the players have switched to an evening open net session after having net-practice for three days at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium training facility in Abu Dhabi.
Nayar told the KKR website www.kkr.in on Wednesday: “The thought process behind the open-net session was that a lot of our guys were coming back to action after four-five months where they haven't actually practiced a lot of cricket. For the first couple of days, we tried to get a lot of quantity, made sure they hit a lot of balls in the nets and spent a lot of time middling the ball.”
He further added, “Most of the guys are looking good. This was just the fourth session today. But things are already looking good. As you said, some of them are middling it well, and the consistency will only get better. But the great part of it is everyone is in a great frame of mind. In the last four-five months they didn't get to practice, but they trained really hard.
So, everyone is looking really fit and they are moving really well, which kind of help in the batting and you see the transition happen quite quickly. So, in four days, they have gone really fast in terms of how they progressed. I am pretty sure in another three-four days and a couple of practice games down the line they will all be match-ready.”
On being asked about the evening conditions in the UAE, the assistant coach said: “We have a lot of evening games coming up. So, we are keeping that in mind -- the fact that the games here will start at 6 o'clock, which is 7.30 pm IST. We will play in that twilight period which is quite difficult in cricket because there is shadow and you sight the ball differently.”
Nayar further explained, “So, we are just trying to get used to both conditions -- afternoon and evening. There may be a few day games as well. We know the temperature here is pretty high and it goes up to 40-44 degrees. In the evening, there is a good breeze going around. It's an open ground and the ball moves a bit. So, we are just getting used to the conditions. Especially because everyone has been indoors for so long, spending time in different conditions at different times of the day is important.”
He signed off by saying, “It's [UAE] a different territory. A lot of guys have never played here. So, for them, it's just to get acclimatized and feel what it's like playing at different times of the day, what the recovery pattern is, and have a better understanding.”
