Spinners expected to play key role vs RCB: Katich

BENGALURU:

Kolkata Knight Riders

assistant coach Simon Katich on Saturday said that the team would expect its spinners to play a key role in Sunday's IPL match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

"We saw that spinners played a major role in the match between RCB and Kings XI Punjab's yesterday. Bangalore spinners did well, and so did Axar Patel and Glenn Maxwell. I think spin will play a big role. We have a number of spinners in the squad and they are performing well," Katich told reporters on the eve of the IPL match on Sunday.

Katich hoped that the

KKR

batsmen would put up a good show against RCB's spinners and register a crucial win to stay in hunt for the play-offs.

"We wish to bat well against spin to register a win and stay in the hunt for entering into the knockout stage."

On Nathan Coulter-Nile's head injury, Katich said he should be ready for the game.

"He was hit by Daniel Christian and was quite shaken that day. These days any head injuries, we have to be very cautious as this is dangerous part of the game. He was hit on the head and on the helmet but was protected. For the last couple of days he has been little off colour. But he should be ready for the game," said the coach.

Asked whether KKR would have it easy against a low-on-confidence RCB, Katich said, "Not at all. T20 is an amazing game you don't turn up with wrong attitude. Last time we played against Pune we had a poor start, we didn't executive our plans well, particularly after the powerplay was finished and it cost us the game. We have to start a fresh game tomorrow."

Katich said like most of the other teams, they too are not flying some of their players for away games.

"Now, we have 23 in the squad. We left behind six players. We want to make sure not everybody went through. Given the schedule most of the teams are doing the same (not taking everybody along)," he said.