Simon Katich, the Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach, is confident that Sunil Narine has put behind him the issues he recently had with his bowling action.
Narine was reported for a suspect action during the PSL last month, and while he was able to continue playing that tournament since he was only reported once, he will come into the IPL with a lot of eyes on him, given his long history of trouble with his action.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Katich said Narine had put plenty of work into his action since the PSL, and was in good shape to start in Knight Riders’ season-opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday.
“Obviously there were some issues recently in the PSL where he was playing for Lahore [Qalandars], but he’s since gone back to Trinidad and spent a lot of time with [spin-bowling consultant] Carl Crowe, working on his action,” Katich said.
“Carl’s his coach, last few years he’s been working with him since he first got reported. He’s done a lot of hard work there, we’re pretty confident with where he’s at with the action at the moment, so hopefully we’ll see him back out there on Sunday.”
Narine was one of Knight Riders’ standout players last season, not just with the ball. He played a key role as a pinch-hitter at the top of the order as well, ending the season with 224 runs at a strike rate of 172.30. Katich didn’t rule out the possibility of Narine batting up the order this season as well. (Excerpt from ESPNcricinfo)
