Kolkata Knight Riders coach Trevor Bayliss wary of Delhi Daredevils' unpredictability

Trevor Bayliss

Kolkata, May 6 (IANS)

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach, Trevor Bayliss, on Wednesday described the Delhi Daredevils as a tough team to beat ahead of their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday. The Daredevils have been struggling this season and are presently sixth on the points table with eight points from the same number of games, but Bayliss stressed they would not be complacent facing the J.P. Duminy-led side.

"Why only Delhi? Kings XI haven't had the best of tournaments as yet, they can be dangerous as well like last year.

"This year is when you see the ladder, it is very close, we have 7-8 teams here with every team capable of beating the other on any given day. Beating no team is easy and we would not take the Delhi team lightly, and with Yuvraj scoring runs, we know what a dangerous player he can be," Bayliss said at the pre-match media conference.

"They have some other Indian players as well in the top of the order. (J.P.) Duminy is also a class player and (Angelo) Mathews! With the bowling attack they got with two leg-spinners makes them a very dangerous team, we will have to be at our best to win," he said.

Narine still an important part of the team

Bayliss also said the transition from his star tweaker Sunil Narine to Brad Hogg has been seamless and has not affected the team.

He, however, hastened to add that Narine was still an important part of the outfit.

"He (Narine) has been doing a lot of hard work. This year, his action has been very good and after a period of time and a lot of pressure, he will revert to the action he has had for a number of years. It will take a year or two for him to perfect the new one. He worked hard and turned up at the IPL with a new action. He wants to work out, he wants to play but it hasn't affected the team at all."

"We hope he comes back into the team soon, he is an important part of our team. The performance of our spinners... like (Narine's replacement) Brad Hogg has be seen a fairly easy transition," he said.

Batting is the weak link: Bayliss

The 52-year-old coach hoped that the batting, which he believes had been the "weak link" of the side, was slowly beginning to come into the forefront making them a force to reckon with in the tournament.

"We wanna play the best cricket towards the end of the tournament, I think that the case now, we haven't had the perfect game yet, but we are heading in the same direction.

"Our batting is starting to click which had earlier been a weak link. Our bowling has been our strength for a number of years, so if we get the batting clicking we will be a force to reckon with in the competition," he said.