New Zealand all-rounder Rachin Ravindra leveraged his time with the Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2026 Indian Premier League to prepare for upcoming Test matches in Europe, despite not playing any games for the franchise.
The national squad is set to play a historic first men's Test against Ireland starting May 27, 2026, in Belfast, followed by a three-match Test series against England beginning June 4, 2026, at Lord's.
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Ravindra returned home early to shift his focus to red-ball cricket, having consulted elite international players and coaches during his IPL stint.
Learning from the Best
“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,” Ravindra told ESPNcricinfo.
The left-handed batsman sought advice from KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, while also consulting senior Indian players during matchdays.
“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.
