John Buchanan

Calcutta: Though Brad Hodge is taking the flight back home on Saturday after being called for national duty, there are no plans of looking for a replacement yet.

“We already have other international players such as Salman Butt… So we won’t seek any replacement for Hodge in the IPL,” Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach John Buchanan said on Friday.

It is learnt that Butt will open the innings in place of Hodge for the eighth Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Deccan Chargers on Sunday.

Hodge, the Australian Twenty20 specialist, has been asked by Cricket Australia (CA) to join the Australia squad for the tour of the West Indies as a shadow replacement for Michael Clarke. The Australia vice-captain left the camp in Brisbane to attend an ailing family member.

Buchanan also said that Shoaib Akhtar would remain a doubtful starter for Sunday’s tie. “Considering his match fitness, Shoaib’s availability appears unlikely. However, he will travel with us as he has been included in the XIV-member squad,” he said.

The squad, otherwise, will remain the same.

On Thursday’s win, the coach however said it’s just the beginning of a turnaround and they must hold on to the winning momentum.

“There’s still a long way to go… Our match against Hyderabad will be tough; they have an explosive batting line-up with (Adam) Gilchrist upfront.”

With Hodge unavailable, Buchanan said they must look at the players who are there.

“We have some very good talents and should look at what we have. Murali Kartik and Wriddhiman Saha did an important job against Bangalore Royal Challengers on Thursday night, though we lost a couple of early wickets. But it was a sizeable target and Sourav’s breaking of Dravid-Boucher partnership was crucial,” he said.

The team for the Hyderabad’s match will leave on Saturday morning.

THE SQUAD

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Aakash Chopra, Salman Butt, David Hussey, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Tatenda Taibu, Debabrata Das, Wriddhiman Saha, Shoaib Akhtar, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Ajit Agarkar, Umar Gul.