Ajinkya Rahane grilled by Danny Morrison about Sunil Narine and de Kock flop show, KKR captain replies in style

4, 1, 14 - These have been the opening partnerships of Kolkata Knight Riders whenever Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine opened the batting in IPL 2025. In the only match against Rajasthan Royals in which KKR had an opening pair, they scored 41. Moeen Ali partnered de Kock in this match as Narine was unavailable due to a niggle. De Kock single-handedly won that match for KKR by smashing 97 off 61 on a sticky pitch.

The opening stand between Phil Salt and Narine was one of the main reasons behind KKR's title-winning run but this year, the de Kock and Narine opening pair hasn't quite fired yet. It has also forced Ajinkya Rahane, Angrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh and Rinku Singh to bat a step or two lower. Against Mumbai Indians, when KKR had to use their Impact Player in the first innings itself, Ramandeep batted at No.9.

KKR have been quite content with Narine as the opener. It has brought mixed results for the defending champions, but the franchise has faced flak whenever Narine has faltered to get going at the top. This year has been no different.

At the toss of KKR's home match against the Lucknow Super Giants at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday, former New Zealand pacer Danny Morrison grilled KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane about the chatter around Narine and de Kock's opening combination. The veteran batter said the franchise knows how important the two left-handers are at the top of the order.

"People are going to talk about it, we know Quinny and Sunil are match-winners. We are not worried about them," Rahane said after winning the toss.

The KKR captain also explained why he opted to bowl first on an afternoon game after being asked by Danny Morrison. "The wicket looks really good, it's not that hot. The wicket won't change much. One side boundary is small, that's why we are bowling first. Everyone is looking forward to this game. This game is all about starting fresh, need to take the positives, need to take one step at a time."

Lucknow is placed in the sixth spot in the points table, whereas KKR is placed in fifth; both teams have won two and lost two.

The team that wins this has a chance to enter the top 4.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, Digvesh Singh Rathi.