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Eden Gardens curator denies KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane's request for a spin-friendly pitch after their loss to RCB in IPL 2025.
Eden Gardens pitch curator has shut down Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper Ajinkya Rahane’s request for a spin-friendly surface in the ongoing IPL 2025. The defending champions KKR lost their opening match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday.
After posting a total of 174/8, Kolkata Knight Riders failed to defend it as Royal Challengers Bengaluru chased down a 175-run target in 17.3 overs. Virat Kohli led the RCB’s batting with an innings of 59 off 36 balls, while Phil Salt (56), Rajat Patidar (34), and Liam Livingstone (15) contributed significantly to the team’s run-chase. When RCB required 8 runs off 6 balls to win the match, Livingstone slammed a six and four on the first two deliveries of the 17th over off Spencer Johnson to take the team over the line.
After the defeat against RCB, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane lamented the pitch’s lack of assistance to his spin bowlers.
“We would love to see the pitch helping the spin bowlers but again, this wicket was under covers for the last one-and-a-half days.” Rahane said at the post-match presentation.
Despite Ajinkya Rahane’s request for a more spin-friendly pitch, Eden Gardens pitch curator, Sujan Mukherjee, strongly said that there are no possibilities of changing the nature of the surface. He added that the franchises do not have any say over the pitch and surface will remain the same till he is in charge.
“As long as I’m here, Eden Gardens pitch will not change,” Mukherjee told RevzSports.
“As per the IPL rules and regulations, franchises have no say over the pitch. Ever since I have taken charge, the pitches here have been like this.
“It was like this in the past. Things haven’t changed now, and it will not be altered in the future.” he added.
Despite the pitch being a little on the slower side due to rainfall a day before the IPL 2025 opener because of anticyclonic conditions in the Bay of Bengal, Kolkata Knight Riders’ total of 174 was surpassed with 22 balls to spare by Royal Challengers Bengaluru. After the match, Rahane spoke about KKR’s reliance on their spin bowling duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
“Both the spinners we have, the quality they have, they can bowl in any kind of wicket and I am sure they are confident as well,” KKR skipper said.
However, Varun Chakravarthy picked only one wicket while conceding 43 runs in four overs, while Sunil Narine registered the figures of 1/27 at an economy rate of 6.80. On the contrary, Royal Challengers Bengaluru spinners, Krunal Pandya (3/29) and Suyash Sharma (1/47) picked three wickets between them.
Speaking further about Ajinkya Rahane’s request for spin-friendly pitch, Sujan Mukherjee questioned KKR spinners for struggling to take as many wickets as RCB’s spinners.
“Their (RCB) spinners took four wickets between them,” argued Mukherjee. “What did the KKR spinners do? Krunal Pandya got three wickets. Suyash Sharma turned the ball to castle Andre Russell.” Eden Gardens pitch curator.
Kolkata Knight Riders will play their next home match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 3, Thursday.
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