Captains frequently get asked about their thoughts on the pitch right after the toss, no matter the coin's flip. On Thursday, during the IPL 2025 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders' captain Ajinkya Rahane found himself in a similar situation. However, the question was particularly pointed due to KKR's ongoing dispute with the Eden curator regarding the pitch conditions, which caught Rahane off guard.

When former English cricketer Nick Knight inquired if Rahane was satisfied with the pitch given the recent discussions, the captain seemed taken aback. He paused for a moment before breaking into a smile and acknowledging that the team got what they were looking for.

"It looks good, I'm really pleased with the pitch, especially since we’re bowling first. It should benefit our spinners. At home, you expect to get what you want, but we’ll need to quickly evaluate the situation when batting," he stated after KKR was set to bat first at their home ground.

KKR's management had expressed dissatisfaction with curator Sujan Mukherjee for not providing a pitch that would support their spinners during the season opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru last month. Mukherjee faced criticism, with some experts suggesting KKR consider a new venue, but he stood by the BCCI guidelines, emphasizing that IPL teams and players shouldn't influence pitch preparations.

According to the BCCI guidelines, the chief curator of the host association is solely responsible for preparing the pitch and ground for all IPL regular season matches. This is done under the supervision of the venue curator appointed by the BCCI, who has the final say on which pitches are used for practice and matches, similar to the process for first-class matches in India. It's also made clear that franchises and players have no input in how the wicket is prepared. The BCCI chief curator is available for any necessary advice and can step in if any problems arise, he shared with RevSportz earlier this week.

Nonetheless, Mukherjee expressed his willingness to discuss matters with Rahane and the KKR management before their match against SRH.

"I'm open to conversations with everyone. The association is always ready to assist. There's been a strong relationship between the state association (CAB) and the franchise. The KKR management is quite familiar with the pitch and conditions at Eden over the past few seasons since I took over. Once the team is back from Mumbai, we can definitely chat, and I'll do my best to help," he mentioned.

KKR has made a single adjustment

Kolkata made a single adjustment for their match against Sunrisers, bringing in Moeen Ali to take the place of Spencer Johnson. On the other hand, the visitors kept their lineup the same.

Teams:

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Aniket Verma, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Read Also: From Dropout to Dhoni's Disciple: The Untold Journey of a CSK Star

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