The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season is truly upon us and the tournament is just three days away. The opener will be contested between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium. With Australian players being involved in the ongoing series against Pakistan, chief mentor of the franchise, David Hussey has provided a big update on the availability of Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch. “Well, it is a concern, you want your best players available, but international cricket should be the para-limit. Every cricketer should want to play international cricket for their countries so they have commitments that way. I think Cummins and Finch will miss the first five games but they will be cricket fit and cricket ready,” said Hussey during a virtual press conference.

“So, once they hit the ground running, both quality people and they will fit into the dressing room perfectly well,” he stated further.

In their first five matches, KKR will square off against Chennai Super Kings (March 26), Royal Challengers Bangalore (March 30), Punjab Kings (April 1), Mumbai Indians (April 6), and Delhi Capitals (April 10).

Talking about whether the franchise lacks a quality wicketkeeper, Hussey said: “No, I think we bought well in the auction. We have Sheldon Jackson; he has dominated the Ranji Trophy and he is a good striker of the ball and he has been with the team for a few years now. We also have Sam Billings; he has played Test cricket for England and he has kept wickets for England in the shorter formats. We are pretty well versed in the wicketkeeping department and it is up to us as the support staff to get the best out of our players.”

In the mega auction, KKR had picked up right-handed batter Shreyas Iyer for Rs 12.25 crore and then he was appointed as the new skipper. Shreyas has earlier led Delhi Capitals in the IPL.

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana, Pat Cummins, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav, Aman Khan.