Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine were out at Eden Gardens, rolling their arm over before any of their teammates arrived at the ground on the eve of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Monday. The KKR spin duo has been the backbone of their team’s success over the years and still holds the key for the Knights. Spin-bowling coach Carl Crowe was full of praise for them at the pre-match press conference on Sunday. “We’re really happy with the spinners we’ve got. They work incredibly hard, you’ll see not only economy, strike rate, wickets taken — they have been consistently performing well for us. Obviously, we’re okay as a team this year and the spin department is clearly part of that,” Crowe said. “Also, we’re bowling unit as a team and with the spinners bowling in the power play, in the middle overs and maybe some time at the death. So, I think, you know, the captain has used the spinners very wisely throughout the whole competition,” he added. Despite either side having quality spinners in their ranks, KKR spin-bowling coach isn’t sure that there will be turn on Monday, saying: “We’ve got two, three, four, the best spinners in the world and so they’ll maximise any spin that’s there. When asked about GT’s bowling unit, especially the form of the Indian pacers, with Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj, along with Ishant Sharma, doing well, Carl Crowe said that KKR will respect them and not back down from the challenge. “Obviously they are flying high at the moment, you know, we respect them as an opposition and not fear them,” he said. “Throughout all the meetings, we’ll discuss opposition, but also we have to make it about us, what we’re doing well. All of our players, when they are playing well, and they are playing positively, it doesn’t really matter too much,” he added. Ashish And Siraj’s Bond Vikram Solanki, director of cricket at Gujarat Titans, not only credited Siraj’s return to wicket-taking form to their head coach Ashish Nehra but added that the Indian pacer’s hard work is finally showing, especially after him being dropped from the national ODI side. “I think Ashish has been a big influence as far as Saraj is concerned for a good number of years now. They obviously have a very good connection, but I don’t want for a second to take away from all of the hard work that Siraj has done also. Of course, he has all of the support of all of the coaches and there is no doubt that Ashish has been a big influence, but we must have also acknowledged the work that Siraj’s and respect that,” he said at the press conference. “There would have been a number of guys that might have said that he perhaps should have been selected (for the Champions Trophy). Selection is a matter of opinion and those who are tasked with that job at the time made a decision. Of course, you respect that all of the players respect that decision.” “As far as confidence is concerned, there is probably no better coach, I don’t think, than Ashish in instilling some confidence in players. But it just seems as though, you know, we’ve got a guy that has something to prove as far as he’s obviously disappointed, he was disappointed, as any cricketer is when they’re not selected. Everybody wants to play at the highest level possible. So I’m sure he was disappointed, but he’s channelled that disappointment in working hard and I suppose, sort of having a real thought about what he wants to do, and he’s got a great coach in Ashish Nehra just helping him as far as his performance is concerned,” he added.