The upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to begin from March 28. So far, the schedule of only first 20 matches has been released due to state elections.
Ahead of the cash-rich league, Kolkata Knight Riders` (KKR) pacer Vaibhav Arora spoke about the preparations of his team.
“Overall, the preparation is solid. We`re playing practice matches and also honing our variations in the nets. As a fast bowler, you always want to prepare well and improve your skills so that you can execute them effectively in match situations,” he said.
Former New Zealand captain Tim Southee has joined KKR as bowling coach, and Arora is hopeful of learning from the 37-year-old former cricketer.
“Tim Southee is a legend with tons of experience. We have been teammates with KKR before in 2023, and I learned a lot from him then. Now that he is our bowling coach, I will get more time to work with him and learn from his experience to improve my skills. There`s a lot I can learn from him, and it is going to be fun working with him,” said Arora.
The first match of the edition is scheduled to be played between the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will kick off their campaign by playing a clash against Mumbai Indians (MI) on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians: Full Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert (WK), Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sarthak Ranjan, Finn Allen (WK), Rachin Ravindra, Cameron Green, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Akash Deep, Prashant Solanki, Matheesha Pathirana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, Tejasvi Singh (WK), Daksh Kamra.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, Suryakumar Yadav, Quinton de Kock (WK), Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Corbin Bosch, Hardik Pandya (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, Raghu Sharma, Atharva Ankolekar, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (WK), Allah Ghazanfar, Naman Dhir, Mohammed Salahuddin Izhar.
(With ANI Inputs)
