Kolkata Knight Riders press conference on Friday had an embarrassing or rather controversial start to it, where their head coach Abhishek Nayar, batting coach Shane Watson bowling coach and mentor Dwayne Bravo, also captain Ajinkya Rahane were present. Bravo got chatting with his fellow coaches unaware of the fact that the mics were already on.
During that brief chat with his colleagues when everybody else were settling down for the presser to start, the West Indian said, “When these guys called me, I had two chicks at my home.” The KKR skipper promptly intervened and took charge of that awkward situation and reminded that the mics are on. “Mics are on. Be careful about what you are talking about,” Rahane said.
If not for Rahane, Bravo would have continued, but not before that moment got recorded and went viral with social media users blasting the former West Indies allrounder for what he said. Once the press conference started, focus shifted to the serious stuff with Bravo answering questions related to KKR’s bowling, which has had setbacks before the start to the season.
KKR’s pace department has been hit by injuries with their star pacer Harshit Rana ruled out, while there is uncertainty over Matheesha Pathirana’s availability. But Bravo is confident of KKR’s bowling depth to deliver, especially of having Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in their ranks.
“Yeah, I think in any tournament with any team, once you lose some of the key bowling options, these are not things you plan for, but these are things you have to accept.
“The good thing about Indian cricket, especially at the moment, there’s a lot of depth.
“There’re the likes of Umran Malik, Kartik Tyagi… These guys are also players who have played IPL before. They are young, exciting talents. So for me personally, I’m happy, along with Tim (Southee), to work with this group of fast bowlers.
“We have the best spin duo in the entire competition. So from a bowling point of view, I think we will be fine.
“Also, don’t forget Vaibhav (Arora), who had a fantastic season last year. So yeah, we lost some key players, but I feel comfortable to know that we have what it takes to replace those guys,” Bravo said.
KKR begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Mumbai Indians on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium.
