IPL 2018 | Gautam Gambhir will be up for the KKR challenge, says Simon Katich

It will certainly be an emotional homecoming for Gautam Gambhir when he steps into the Eden Gardens again today. The man who teamed up with the Knight Riders back in 2011, captained the side for seven successful years winning two IPL trophies - 2012 and 2014. At the last phase of his career, the mercurial player decided to offer his services to his home side Delhi Daredevils and requested the KKR thinktank not to retain him during the auction. During today’s match, all eyes will solely be on Gautam Gambhir when Delhi Daredevils will lock horns against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens.

However, Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Simon Katich believes that it is important for his side not be too awed by the occasion and just play the match.

"Gautam knows our team inside out. He will know the wicket and conditions really well. He knows about a lot of players who have been here for a long time. Yes, there will be emotions involved from I guess Gautam's point of view because he had a fantastic time here as captain and was very successful. We know he will be up for the challenge as three of the Sunrisers boys were last night (Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan)," Katich said ahead of the match, reported Cricketnext.

"I think from our point of view, it's about performing well against the opposition. If you start playing the man rather than the ball, you know you are in trouble in this game. There are a lot of new faces in the team. There are guys who have joined from other teams, some youngsters so it's not the exact same team that played under Gautam for so many years.” 

After losing from Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata would desperately want to get back some winning momentum.

“In the last couple of games, things have not gone according to plan with both bat and ball, particularly in the back end. Last night here in Kolkata, we were obviously 25-30 runs short with the bat and that put us under pressure with the ball. I thought the spinners last night were outstanding. To be fair to the batsmen yesterday, the rain breaks kept happening, we never got any momentum in our innings. I think from a batting point of view, our batsmen have all looked really good at the start of the tournament." 

After seven seasons with a consistent captain at the helm, KKR had a huge decision to make as far as Gambhir's successor was concerned. Eventually, the Kolkata based franchise decided to ahead with Dinesh Karthik instead of Robin Uthappa. However, a lot of eyebrows were raised after Karthik decided to send top-order batsman Shubman Gill at No.7 and giving Shivam Mavi the ball in the 15th over when the match was as good as over. Simon Katich, however, backed every decision made by Karthik in the match.

"He has been really good so far. Things haven't quite gone to plan. But in terms of how he settled in, he is getting around the group. We have a lot of youngsters. So he is spending a lot of time chatting with youngsters. From a performance point of view, he would have liked to get the team home a couple of times. He was trying last night, did not quite go to plan. The effort is there. His keeping has been excellent,"  he concluded.