Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) assistant coach Ottis Gibson hopes that Rishabh Pant's poor form will continue against them in the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025). Pant has scored just 19 runs from four innings in the season so far.
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00:00So you said after the game for Kolkata, the heat is pretty awesome out there. So do you think that could also affect the pitch and the preparation by them and the outcome of the match?
00:12Yeah, we anticipate that. Of course, because it's a day game, we have to be prepared for that and that's why yesterday afternoon we came in the middle of the day for our practice session to get used to that.
00:22Most of these guys have been playing in the IPL now and they play night games, they play day games, so it shouldn't affect us too much.
00:32Do you think that this pitch is similar to the last one? Is there any chance of any changes?
00:43Look, we of course have a very strong squad and the pitch, hopefully it plays like it did in the last game. Of course, it's a day game, so the pitch might not change too much over the course of 40 overs.
00:55We sort of prepare ourselves to play on any type of surface, but if the surface is similar to the one we had in the last game, then hopefully that will be a benefit to us.
01:06Are you looking for any changes in the opening?
01:19No.
01:21Any other questions?
01:26This is Arun Chatterjee from the Indian newspaper.
01:30This is a very familiar question. They have the top of the first three and among them there are very dangerous.
01:40Do you have any particular thing you want to do in terms of changing the personality of the players?
02:00No, not really, because the last game we played very well. The last game, Sunrisers, also had a powerhouse batting line-up.
02:08Our bowlers, especially our two local bowlers up front, bowled very well and took wickets in the powerplay, which is key for us.
02:16Which then gives our two very good spinners, probably the two best spinners in the competition, Varun and Sunil Narine, the opportunity to take wickets in the middle overs.
02:27The key for us is to try and take wickets with a new ball, which we did. And we will continue to try and do that, certainly from the next game and then going forward as well.
02:36This is Shromek from Rays Sports. From Arun's point of view, are you happier with the fact that Rishabh Malik is batting at No. 4 other than what he did in Swamath?
02:50I don't know what he's going to do in this game. They might promote him to open this game. I don't know.
02:55Like I said, we actually just had all of our planning meetings and we know how dangerous he can be.
03:04Of course, he hasn't had any form yet and we hope that that continues this week as well.
03:11We've planned for every possibility. If he opens, if he moves position, we've planned for all of that.
03:17Hopefully, the boarders can go out and stay calm and execute their plans, no matter where he bats in the batter line-up.
03:26Of course, last year, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narayanan, Rishabh Malik, all the like-minded people were there.
03:33But this season, we have again seen Raghav Arora creating an impact with a new ball.
03:37He's the joint highest wicket-taker right now for CKR.
03:40So, how are you seeing his progress year by year, or this season particularly, with the ball and how he's bowling at the middle of the season?
03:47Yeah, I think he's done very well for us. Both him and Harshit have done very well for us.
03:53You look at the fact that in the last game, for instance, that we were able to leave out Spencer Johnson, an international player, to play these two guys and bat them.
04:02Because we trust them. We know what they're doing. We know how hard Viber is working with DJ Bravo in terms of strategies,
04:12in terms of how he's going to set up his overs and how he's going to look to take wickets.
04:15And that's working very well and hopefully that will continue to work.
04:18But like I said, the fact that we were able to leave out an international and trust these two local guys and they went out and performed for us was a really pleasing sign.
04:26Is Spencer's strength, or is playing bowling the strength of CKR?
04:29Bowling is the strength. We have no strength. If we take wickets with a new ball, then we can be very dangerous in the middle overs, of course, with Varun and Sonny.
04:38And if we don't take wickets with a new ball, then we've still got those guys that we can utilise in the middle overs.
04:45We played Maureen Alley who bowled very well for us in Rajasthan and he didn't even get to bowl any overs in the last game.
04:52We've got some more overs into Russell. He might go for runs, but he always takes a wicket for us.
05:00He's a partnership breaker and we use him in that way as an impact sort of bowler.
05:04If we like to come on and take a wicket in there, we can get him off and get one of our better bowlers back on.
05:09Like I said, it's early days in the tournament, but we're trying to find ways to get guys into the game and give them the best possible opportunity to be successful for us.