Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 28 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has expressed excitement about getting the opportunity to work closely with star Australian all-rounder Cameron Green during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season.

The three-time champions KKR will kickstart their IPL 2026 campaign against five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in a clash of heavyweights at Mumbai on March 29.

Ahead of the tournament, the main talking points are the role, batting position and expectations from the franchise's big-ticket signing Green, on whom the team splurged Rs 25.20 crores last year in the action.

During the pre-match press conference, Watson said joining KKR has been very exciting, especially because of the opportunity to work closely with Green. Although they've spoken several times over the years, being able to support him daily and help him achieve his goals is something he's really looking forward to.

'There are a number of exciting things about me coming to KKR. One of the biggest is working with Cameron Green. I've had several conversations with him over the years, but being able to help him on his journey and support his growth is something I'm really excited about,' Watson said.

Watson added, 'We've seen him when he got picked up to play for the Mumbai Indians, for a pretty decent amount, then he performed brilliantly in the 2023 edition. And that is his mindset when it comes to the IPL, that he's got nothing to lose in the end. So I'm not expecting anything different. If you've seen the way he's trained over the last couple of weeks as well. I don't think in any way that his performance will be suffocated by the price tag. Because he's very free and excited about being able to be free in the new role as well.'

Kolkata Knight Riders squad for IPL 2026:

Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep, Blessing Muzarabani. (ANI)