Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Dinesh Karthik and Robin Uthappa, along with head coach Jacques Kallis and other members of the support staff, ‘sneaked’ into the Eden at around 5 pm on Friday.

It caught everyone by surprise since the official word was that there would not be any practice session the day after KKR lost to Rajasthan Royals by three wickets.

Karthik, whose unbeaten 97 went in vain on Thursday, and Uthappa spent a good 90 minutes facing the net bowlers. There were simulated match situations as both tried the long handle to good use. The KKR captain and Uthappa were also seen having discussions with Kallis on certain aspects.

Uthappa, who has not been in good form in IPL XII, lost his place in the playing XI. So Friday’s practice session of Uthappa assumes importance. With very few batsmen firing, barring Andrew Russell consistently and Karthik on Thursday, there is a high chance that Uthappa may be back in KKR’s scheme of things. It remains to be seen on whom the axe falls.

Twice champions KKR have lost six matches on the trot. They need to win their remaining three matches starting from Sunday, against Mumbai Indians, to keep their play-offs hopes alive. They would also pray other results to work in their favour.

KKR’s problem in this edition has been the failure of their batting unit. The batting has not clicked collectively in a single match.

If Russell had fired, then Karthik or a Nitish Rana failed. If Russell faltered — like it happened on Thursday — then a Karthik scored.

Most of the KKR players had a rest day on Friday. In the morning though they had a shooting commitment at the team hotel where the likes of Karthik, Russell and Kuldeep Yadav were present.