The wicket at the Eden Gardens played its part during Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) best years in the IPL, which saw them lift the title twice under Gautam Gambhir. On the slow turning tracks, opponents were left confused even as KKR's spin-based attack and batsmen knew what to do on them. KKR still have class and variety in spin but the friendly wickets have gone.

Containing rampaging batsmen is suddenly a different ball game as the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla will tell you. The conditions do lend themselves nicely to their array of stroke-makers, but KKR sit uneasy as the batting unit has gone off the boil, and but for Andre Russell's incredible hitting, they would have failed to put up competitive totals on most days.