He said "Shoaib Akhtar not playing,so what?"

After a tribunal on Wednesday rejected fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar's appeal against the five-year ban imposed upon him by the Pakistan Cricket Board, the Kolkata Knight Riders, for whom the Rawalpindi Express had signed up, will now have to look for a replacement. But they seem to be in no hurry. According to Riders' skipper Sourav Ganguly, it is his team's batting, and not the bowling, that needs immediate attention.

Akhtar was cleared to play "outside Pakistan" but BCCI sources told TOI that it is unlikely that the volatile bowler will be allowed to play in the IPL as he has been banned by PCB.

"If Shoaib does not come, we are not worried. We already have a very promising attack. In fact, there are three front-line bowlers like Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Ajit Agarkar. On top of that, we have Umar Gul who has come from Pakistan. It's our batting which needs to click," Ganguly said after his team's arrival here on Wednesday evening.

Talking about his own form, he admitted: "I have been struggling to get big runs for my team, but I have had some fantastic performances in the last 16 to 17 months and I am drawing confidence from those showings. Also, this is the early part of the tournament and we have 10 more games to go."

The former India captain added: "The wicket in the last match against Mumbai was good. We lost because we didn't bat well. The track was bad in the first game against Hyderabad. Now the focus is on doing well in the next match."