A day after suffering a humiliating nine-wicket thrashing at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Kolkata Knight Riders returned to base on Monday afternoon.

However, the entire squad has not come back to the city.

The absentees were mostly the Indian players, including captain Dinesh Karthik. Some of the other prominent names who did not walk out of the departure terminal on Monday were Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana. Initially, it was not possible to get the specifics about the missing list since the Knight Riders camp went mysteriously quiet. After repeated requests, the Knight Riders management informed that the team has been given “some time off to regroup ahead of our next match”.

The media statement added: “A few of the players felt they could get a better practice session in Mumbai. These players will be rejoining the rest of the team on Wednesday.”

Around 9pm, Knight Riders’s CEO Venky Mysore replied to a text message from The Telegraph on the same issue. Mysore, from Mumbai, wrote: “Everyone has been given a couple of days off, some have come to Mumbai for sponsor commitments and will practise here (in Mumbai) on Tuesday. Everyone will be back in Calcutta on Wednesday and will be present at the practice session at the Eden.”

If the case is that simple, that the team has been given time off, probably to iron out the issues that have been plaguing them, it is difficult to understand what the initial secrecy was all about.

Also, though the CEO speaks about sponsor commitments in Mumbai, the media statement that was issued on behalf of the team management earlier didn’t mention that and instead said that some of the players felt that they could get a better practice session in Mumbai.

Andre Russell, however, returned to Calcutta.