Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

Over the last few days, the ‘home advantage’ debate accounted for a lot of column-inches. It started with Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane asking for a bit more turn on the Eden Gardens pitches, after his side lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2025 opener. Then, Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming and Lucknow Super Giants mentor Zaheer Khan, too, joined the party, taking forward the discourse. KKR mentor Dwayne Bravo contradicted the popular narrative. KKR and Sunrisers Hyderabad will face-off at Eden on Thursday. Bravo attended the pre-match press conference and the question to him…

Pictures are worth a thousand words. A couple of images at Eden Gardens, as Sunrisers Hyderabad trained on Tuesday, raised the curiosity quotients. After SRH came to the ground, Mohammed Shami went to curator Sujan Mukherjee and the two had a conversation. Some time later, Cricket Association of Bengal president, Snehasish Ganguly walked up to the centre square and had a discussion with Mukherjee that looked to be intense. Kolkata Knight Riders, the home team, didn’t turn up. They were returning from Mumbai. Still very early into IPL 2025, but suddenly the April 3 game against SRH has assumed a…

Kolkata Knight Riders will hope that their batting implosion against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede was a one-off. But if one scrutinises closely, the way their batsmen struggled against extra bounce and movement could be a cause for concern. Have MI provided the pitch template to tame the defending IPL champions? Will other teams take a leaf out of the Wankhede playbook in their home fixtures against KKR? And, though it’s still early in the season, is KKR head coach Chandrakant Pandit searching for support without Gautam Gambhir by his side? Speaking to RevSportz during the MI vs KKR game on…

During an IPL several moons ago, a franchise, in conjunction with the ground staff of the respective centre, was trying to ascertain the ‘home advantage’. Sanjay Jagdale, who was the BCCI secretary then, would take the story forward. “I don’t want to name the venue, but I was told by Daljit Singh (then BCCI’s chief curator) that our (BCCI) curators weren’t given control of the wicket,” Jagdale said, speaking to RevSportz. “But I spoke to the owner of that franchise and told him ‘this can’t happen’. I called Daljit paaji and spoke to the owner in front of him. And…

Rohit Sharma will decide on going to England for a five-Test series by the second week of May, RevSportz understands. In case he opts out, which appears unlikely at the moment, Shubman Gill is next in line to be handed the Test captaincy. The Indian squad for the England tour – the five-Test series commencing at Leeds on 20 June – is likely to be picked in the final weeks of the IPL. “As things stand, Rohit is going,” a source in the know told RevSportz. “But you never know. It will depend on his fitness as well. There’s no…

To be fair, Stephen Fleming’s unusual post-match meltdown in the aftermath of Chennai Super Kings’ defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chepauk on Friday is not indefensible. There was a lot for the CSK head coach to be upset about. Also, picking the ‘home advantage’ thing didn’t offer an oddity. Fleming is the last person to throw his players under the bus in public. Allowing RCB to hand CSK their biggest-ever home defeat was never fun. And maybe, Fleming is apprehensive about the fact that after a fallow 2024 season, this year, too, is not going to be the annus…

“There’s no fight with the KKR management,” clarified Eden Gardens curator Sujan Mukherjee. The whole pitch issue with points and counterpoints seems to have thawed and RevSportz understands that Kolkata Knight Riders are likely to get a surface to their liking for their next home match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 3. After RevSportz exclusively reported that Mukherjee has refused to budge as regards the nature of the pitches at Eden, on the heels of Ajinkya Rahane’s comment at the press conference, asking for more spin-friendly decks, ‘surface tension’ rose and KKR’s ‘home advantage’ became a subject of national debate.…

First up, Sunil Gavaskar’s column – titled ‘Will the current Team India coach follow the Rahul Dravid model?’ – on The Hindu/SPORTSTAR was a nice read. Gavaskar is one of the few former cricketers whose columns are not ghosted. He writes his own articles and they are never boring. In this column, the legendary former India captain took the readers back to the Lord’s dressing room after India’s World Cup triumph in 1983. Borrowing a crate of champagne from the West Indies changing room, where their captain Clive Lloyd “morosely but generously” agreed to the request from Kapil Dev…

Shreyas Iyer couldn’t complete his hundred. He was left stranded on 97 off 42 balls, as Shashank Singh took the mickey out of Mohammed Siraj in the final over. Twenty-three runs were scored in that over, 22 of them coming off Shashank’s bat, while the other one was a wide. At the end of Punjab Kings’ innings, the skipper gave a pat on his partner’s back. Missing out on his maiden IPL century didn’t upset him. It was about his team posting an imposing total against Gujarat Titans. Indian cricket has moved on from personal-milestone obsession. Shreyas is a part…

Ajinkya Rahane to reporters: “We would love to see some spin on this wicket but again, no complaints.” Sujan Mukherjee to RevSportz: “As long as I’m here, Eden Gardens pitch will not change.” Early days at the 2025 IPL, but the murmurs from the Kolkata Knight Riders camp over the Eden surface seemingly has the potential to snowball into an outcry, if results don’t go their way. Mukherjee, the Eden curator, is not going to budge. KKR were beaten, rather hammered, by Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in the IPL opener on their home patch on Saturday. Among their bowlers, only Sunil…