Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor Dwayne Bravo opened up on ‘home advantage’, saying that teams need to make ‘necessary adjustments’ as per the playing conditions. On Thursday, the Knights are set to lock horns with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their second home match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Earlier, KKR slumped to a heavy seven-wicket defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the opening match of the tournament. KKR head coach Chandrakant Pandit had said that teams should have a greater say in getting pitches as per their wishes. But as per Bravo, fans play a bigger role in teams getting home advantage.
“For me, you turn up, you play. The team that plays the best will win – whether it’s slow, it’s turning, or not turning. For me, my language to the players will always be to make the necessary adjustments for the conditions,” Bravo said in the pre-match press conference.
IPL 2025 Coverage | IPL Points Table | IPL Schedule
“And what helps us with home advantage is the fans. I think that is more important than how the pitch plays. I will not really comment much about pitches. Once the fans are there into the game and cheering us on, that makes a difference,” Bravo added.
After Wednesday’s match, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) mentor Zaheer Khan also said that his team didn’t get the pitch they wanted against the Punjab Kings.
After losing to RCB, the Knight Riders made a stupendous comeback, beating Rajasthan Royals (RR) by eight wickets at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati. However, they again lost momentum after Mumbai Indians (MI) beat them at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Placed at the bottom of the table with two points and a poor net run rate of -1.428, KKR would be looking to get back to winning ways.
