Sunil Narine certainly comes into Kolkata Knight Riders, assured head coach Brendon McCullum after his side slumped to the sixth position on the points table after suffering a 38-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers's whirlwind half-centuries guided RCB to 204/4 and KKR scored 166/8 in reply. Andre Russell's 31 off 20 late in the run-chase did give KKR fans a bit of hope towards the end. However, Mohammed Siraj conceded just one run in the penultimate over to leave KKR with 43 runs to get in the last over.
McCullum also heaped praise on Maxwell and de Villiers and said that both the dashers took Chepauk surface out of the equation. Varun Chakravarthy and Prasidh Krishna took two wickets in the first two overs to reduce RCB to 9/2.
Maxwell then scored 78 off 49 balls, putting up a partnership of 86 runs with Devdutt Padikkal. After the latter's dismissal, Maxwell was joined by de Villiers as the duo took KKR bowlers to the cleaners.
"Sunil Narine stood on the rope before our first game which means he has had an injury where he was not 100 per cent fit. He certainly comes into our calculations, he was touch and go for this game against RCB but we opted for Shakib who has been good for us and he gives us an extra bit of batting.
"After three games, the guys have played well, we have not got the results, we probably would need some fresh legs for slightly different wickets in Mumbai," said McCullum after KKR's defeat.
"We probably expect to make one or two changes in our next game, but overall I think, we have shown we have a good chance in this tournament if we tidy up.
"There was some tremendous batting from Maxwell and ABD on the surface which was probably the best we have seen in Chennai, but it was still tricky at times but both these batsmen took the surface out of the equation," he added.
With two losses and a win in the first three games, the Eoin Morgan-led side will look to grab two crucial points when they take on MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday.
