Hopefully we'll see Sunil Narine back against RCB on Sunday, says Simon Katich

Over the period of years, we’ve come across various talents amongst international bowlers from different countries who were pulled up by the ICC governing body for irregularities in their bowling action. Players like Muttiah Muralitharan, Shoaib Akhtar, Lasith Malinga, and Saeed Ajmal have faced issues regarding their action in the past, and the latter was suspended from playing until he remodeled his action and proved he could bowl legally.

Sunil Narine, one of Kolkata Knight Riders’ most prolific wicket-taker over the years, was also pulled up for issues with his action by the ICC in the last year, upon which he put in the effort to improve his action and bowl as per the rules of the ICC board. However, Narine was reported for a suspect action during the PSL last month, although he was allowed to continue playing since he was reported on just one occasion.

However, KKR assistant coach Simon Katich is more than hopeful that the West Indian spinner will turn out on Sunday to face the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore team in their opening match of the season.

"Obviously there were some issues recently in the PSL where he was playing for Lahore , but he's since gone back to Trinidad and spent a lot of time with [spin-bowling consultant] Carl Crowe, working on his action," Katich said at a press conference yesterday.

 "Carl's his coach, last few years he's been working with him since he first got reported. He's done a lot of hard work there, we're pretty confident with where he's at with the action at the moment, so hopefully we'll see him back out there on Sunday."

Narine was one of Knight Riders' standout players last season as he played a key role as a pinch-hitter at the top of the order as well, ending the season with 224 runs at a strike rate of 172.30. Katich didn't rule out the possibility of Narine batting up the order this season to help the KKR team get off to a strong start.

"Last year, initially, he didn't open - we had Gautam Gambhir and Chris Lynn that opened, but then after game 2, when Chris Lynn hurt his shoulder, we had to rejig the team balance-wise. 

"We felt that Sunny opening was going to give us an advantage with the balance of our team and also free him up to play a role at the top of the order, which he did a very, very good job of. He's primarily one of our main spinners, if not our number one spinner, but given the balance of our team, you never know where he's going to bat, so it all depends on what we feel the best combination is," Katich added.

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