Like Knights, Sunrisers are living in hope

It’s been a decade since the Kolkata Knight Riders laid hands on the IPL trophy, and many among their legion of fans believe the long wait will end this year.

Several ‘positives’ may have popped up over the past few months to point to that possibility but none has heightened hopes the way the return of KKR’s most successful skipper has. Gautam Gambhir, who led the Knights to their only title-triumphs, in 2012 and 2014, has long left his playing days behind and will only ‘mentor’ KKR this time.

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Much like the Knights, who they take on at the Eden Gardens on Saturday, Sunrisers Hyderabad too arrive on the wings of hope. After three disastrous seasons plagued, among other things, by frequent changes in leadership, the 2016 champions will want to believe they did well at the Dubai auctions to plug holes and bolster team strength. While Afghan Rashid Khan, who had played a pivotal role, left in 2022, the addition of Pat Cummins and Wanindu Hasaranga restores the potency to a mix that already has the likes of Bhubaneshwar Kumar and leg-spinner Mayank Markende. It is, however, the aquisition of Travis Head that may excite the men in orange the most.

While the Hyderabad franchise broke the bank at the auctions for Cummins with a winning bid of Rs 20.50 crores, KKR relegated him to the second-most expensive player in IPL history when they spent Rs 24.75 crore on left-arm speedster Mitchell Starc. While the two Aussies try to upstage each other and justify their respective price tag, the KKR attack will mostly be about their ‘mystery’ spinners. While Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy present the main hurdle to opposing batsmen, leg-spinner Suyash Sharma adds his own little spin to the tale.