Sports

Knight Riders has strongest batting line-up: Katich

PTI

Carlos Brathwaite's presence in the KKR line-up will boost the franchise's batting, which is the "best" among eight teams, claimed assistant coach Simon Katich.

The Barbados all-rounder in the most expensive buy for KKR at Rs  5 crore and will add firepower alongside Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa and Andre Russell.

"The big fella has got potentially one of the best strike rates in World T20. So in terms of our batting, it's the strongest in the competition," Katich made his ambitious claim during the unveiling of new recruits.

A career T20 average of shade under 17 in 143 games doesn't exactly inspire confidence but Katich probably wants to measure his ability to be destructive looking at his career strike-rate of 145.04.

"We are blessed with a lot of powerful players like Lynn, Narine, who is good during the Powerplay. There is Robin (Uthappa), Nitish (Rana), DK, there is Shubman (Gill)...

With a maximum of four foreigners allowed in the playing XI, it may be a selection headache for KKR think tank after Carlos' inclusion but the Aussie said they would assess the conditions to pick the XI.

"It depends on the opposition and where we are playing. In certain games, there will be a possibility that they will play together potentially. But throughout, our batting line up has been our real strength."

"Last year six of our batsmen were inside the top-25 leading run-getters," he pointed out.

"So we have a very powerful batting line up. It's great to see the big fella get out there and start swatting sixes like flies at the back end of the innings."

Eyeing to match the triple title feats of Chennai  and Mumbai in the league, Kolkata will begin their campaign against Sunrisers at  Eden Gardens on Sunday.