Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik has backed the side's leading pacer Pat Cummins to come good throughout the course of the Indian Premier League. Cummins had a poor outing with the ball in the side's opening game as he conceded 49 runs in three overs.

Karthik said that it's "unfair to judge him," as he received the permission to play on the same day as the match itself."I think it's very unfair to judge him right now, he's just off quarantine, at literally 3:34 he got the permission to play the match itself," Karthik said in the post-match press conference.

"We are just happy to have him, I don't think this is the game to judge him. Just the fact that he's a world champion bowler, from whatever I've heard and seen he's one of the best going around in the world. I trust him completely and I'm sure he'll come good."

Shivam Mavi, who made a return for the side after spending the entirety of the IPL 2019 on sidelines due to injury, impressed with the ball as he took two wickets for 32 in four overs, taking key wickets of Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma.

Karthik heaped praise on the bowler. "I think he was upfront, he was really good. The poor guy missed out due to injury last season so he's really looking forward to this competition. He's shaping up well so that's a good sign for KKR," said Karthik.

The KKR captain is not too worried about the failure of the batting order in the 196-run chase. The side was held at 146/9 in 20 overs in the run-chase, with major players like Eoin Morgan, Shubman Gill and Andre Russell failing to make a mark.

Talking about the possibility of changes in the batting order, Karthik said, "Depends on the game, what score we're chasing and what we're doing at any point of time. The advantage with our batting is that we're very fluid and we want to keep it that way as much as possible."