Nobody knows what to expect from IPL

The Kolkata Knight Riders are here for the opening game of the much-awaited IPL, but like most of the teams, we still have not got all the guys here. We will be without Chris Gayle, Umar Gul and Salman Butt on Friday, but the situation is the same for the Bangalore Royal Challengers who will be without the in-form Dale Steyn and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

The rest of the Knight Riders, however, have had adequate preparation for this game. David Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Tatenda Taibu and I arrived last Friday, and over the last week we have been training pretty hard, the sapping heat and humidity notwithstanding. Sourav Ganguly was able to join the team only Monday. We chatted for 10 minutes on Tuesday, but I was unable to attend the team meeting on Wednesday because I went to Mumbai to receive the ICC Trophy on behalf of the Australian team.

Having just landed in Bangalore, we will have a late evening top-up training session ahead of Friday’s game. I met a couple of the Bangalore boys, and Cameron White said that he might not get a game, so we will have to see what team the Royal Challengers play on Friday.

One of the positives about IPL is being to play with young players. I was very impressed with Ashok Dinda who bowled at pretty good pace at Tuesday's practice game. This is very good news for us because we were looking a little thin in the pace bowling department, what with the non-availability of Shoaib Akhtar and the absence of Gul. It seems likely that Dinda will open the bowling alongside Ishant Sharma. Among the other Bengal players, Laxmi Ratan Shukla was in good form with both the bat and ball during the practice game and looks like a pretty handy player for this format.

Looking ahead at the tournament, the excitement has again gained momentum after a few quiet weeks post the auction. There is a feeling that we are all entering an unknown territory, and nobody knows what to expect from this league. Having played international cricket for so long, it is interesting to see something new happen and to be part of it.

I just got my Knight Riders kit in Bangalore, and it looks pretty flamboyant. The whole atmosphere in Bangalore is one of anticipation with a grand show being planned ahead of our game. I am not sure how much of the show we Knight Riders will be able to enjoy since it's a few hours before our game.