Kolkata Knight Riders’ Kiwi all-rounder Rachin Ravindra didn’t play a single game in the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) before he was allowed to fly back home to refresh himself a bit before the Test series against Ireland and England take centre stage for him and New Zealand.
However, Ravindra didn’t think that he wasted his time in India. As said before, he didn’t play a game and was largely fulfilling water duties, but being with a great bunch was always going to be helpful, even for Test matches. Ravindra said he learnt so much from KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane — a high-class red-ball batsman — and Abhishek Nayar, who, in the past, has been with the Indian national team as an assistant batting coach. Then he also managed to have conversations with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul during IPL matches.
“There’s benefits to playing cricket and training. There’s also massive benefits being in the IPL too. I mean, you get to talk to someone like Ajinkya Rahane, who’s a lovely man who’s played so much cricket overseas, scored a hundred at Lord’s and played so much cricket against England and Australia away,” ESPNcricinfo quoted him as saying.
“The coach [Abhishek Nayar] used to be the assistant batting coach for India. You got Shane Watson, who is our batting coach, who has played England a lot, coached a lot of guys who have played England. So it’s sort of, it’s more than just the T20 as well. Being able to sit down and talk to Virat [Kohli] about batting or talking to KL Rahul – all these guys who’ve done well and had success over periods of time,” he added.
Ravindra praises KKR staff for being understanding!
New Zealand will play Ireland in a one-off Test that kicks off on May 27 in Belfast. Then a three-Test rubber against England will start from June 4 at Lord’s. Ravindra was grateful to the KKR set-up for letting him go for national duty.
“I mean KKR were very welcoming and understanding of the situation. Obviously, the way it was going, I wasn’t playing. The decision was spoken to the CEO and the coach about potentially coming home for a refresh and obviously not knowing I’d be home until… Well, I wouldn’t be home until late August because of what’s to come.
“So, really awesome from them to be able to say, go home, refresh, do a bit of training and what you need before joining the boys in Ireland. Because there was always going to be a little bit of an overlap. It made it easier since I wasn’t playing. It’s a great little refresh. We spend so much time away from home,” he said.
