Shoaib boost for Knight Riders

13th May 2008

Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar is likely to make his maiden appearance in the DLF Indian Premier League in the Kolkata Knight Riders' next game according to their skipper Sourav Ganguly.

Speaking to reporters at the post-match press conference after his team had handed the Deccan Chargers their seventh defeat in the tournament, skipper Ganguly indicated that Shoaib Akhtar will be available for the next match.

Akhtar did not play in the Knight Riders' previous two matches against the Royal Challengers and the Deccan Chargers, even though he joined the team on May 5.

Elaborating the reasons for the speedster not being picked, Ganguly suggested that Akhtar was not exactly match fit, since the last time the pacer played any form of competitive cricket was when Pakistan toured India in December 2007.

"The last series he played was against us. He has not played cricket for past some months. If we had won the last four games we could have taken the chance of using him. But we were in a tight condition", he stated adding that the game against Deccan Chargers was an important one and he was happy to win.

"This was an away game and we had to win it", he said.

The southpaw also pointed out that his team were not yet thinking of the knockout stage, and were focused on taking every match as it came.

"We have to wait and see. We can't think of semi-finals yet. We need to keep playing and keep winning", he said.

Kolkata got off to a dashing start, but have struggled to maintain the same level of momentum. Further, they have had to face the exodus of international players like Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle and now Brad Hodge, which seemed to affect the team combination.

"We are the most affected in terms of players going away. So from that point of view we need to focus and try and win. We keep on losing players. The new combinations keep on coming and we haven't been winning. So we have to do something different", he stated.