Follow UsAustralia's white-ball captain Aaron Finch and Test skipper Pat Cummins are set to miss the opening five matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Kolkata Knight Riders' mentor David Hussey confirmed on Wednesday.
The duo are part of the Australian side that is set to play three ODIs and a T20I against Pakistan from March 31 to April 5 and will have serve mandatory quarantine before entering the IPL bio-bubble in Mumbai.
"Well, it is a concern, you want your best players available, but international cricket should be the para-limit. Every cricketer should want to play international cricket for their countries so they have commitments that way. I think Cummins and Finch will miss the first five games but they will be cricket fit and cricket ready," Hussey said during a virtual press conference.
"So, once they hit the ground running, both quality people and they will fit into the dressing room perfectly well," he added.
Finch, who initially went unsold in the mega-auction in February, was signed by KKR as Alex Hales' replacement who pulled out of the tournament due to bubble fatigue.
Hussey was full of praise of for Shreyas Iyer, who was announced as the captain of KKR last week. The former Delhi Capitals skipper was signed by KKR for a sum of Rs 12.5 crore.
"Shreyas is a born leader, just the way he walks around, he commands respect. Knowing Pat (Cummins) really well, he would be a good deputy and would also lead from the front. But the way Shreyas has captained in the past for Delhi, he has a very good cricket brain and a nice vision of how to play the game and I think he will express himself really well. I think it's a smart move from Brendon (McCullum) and KKR management," Hussey said.
Hussey was satisfied with the team composition after an excellent season where they finished runners-up.
"Good to have Umesh Yadav back in the side. He works hard on his game and he's an absolute beast and hopefully he charges in and bowls exceptionally quick. We got good fast bowlers in Umesh, (Tim) Southee, (Shivam) Mavi and Cummins and good spin in Varun (Chakravarthy) and (Sunil) Narine," the former Australian batter said.
The Australian was confident that senior batter Ajinkya Rahane will bounce to form after being axed from the Indian Test side for the recently-concluded series against Sri Lanka.
"He might not be scoring the runs he wants recently but they way he is training he's going to dominate in the IPL and also he's a leader amongst the group as well," Hussey said of Rahane.
KKR are said to open their campaign against defending champions Chennai Super Kings on March 26 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
(With inputs from PTI)