Sayan Guin – Kolkata Knight Riders have become a case study for IPL franchises. You need a collective teamwork more than depending on individual brilliance on any given day. On paper KKR always looked a promising side with small loopholes but nevertheless, a team which can take the fight to the opposition. A team which is jam-packed with the best of talents, be it the mystery of Narine, the power hitting of “The Big Man” Russell, the class of the world’s best Test bowler, Pat Cummins or arguably the best white ball cricket captain, Eoin Morgan.
But they never looked a solid team. After leaving their fate hanging on the thread, ultimately it backfired and they called adieu to the season of 2020.
XtraTime took the effort to jot down the 5 defining points behind KKR’s slump this season.
- Inconsistency – If there is a word that defines KKR’s journey this season, it is inconsistency. No player looked solid and consistent throughout the season. There were some one day flurries but never a consistent performance. Nitish Rana played well on occasional days and flopped big time the next day. Rahul Tripathi looked promising in his knock against Delhi during the big chase and showed signs of filling up the opening slot in a flamboyant knock against CSK, but then kind of went under the radar. Dinesh Karthik’s performance was a big failure this season with him making an impact in selected matches only.
- Form of Russell and Narine – Sometimes we expect so big from few players that we get disappointed more often than not. And this is the story of these two big superstars of KKR. First coming to Russell, he was in short words, out of form. The Russell we knew from last two seasons, was nowhere to be found. He continued to struggle with the occasional short deliveries which was taken good advantage of by the oppositions. He had few flairs in the bowling but his injury problem came as a big blow, making his contribution this season close to none. Now when it comes to Narine, it was full of controversy. First, if we talk Narine as a batsman, he failed big time to show the hitting prowess he possesses as an opener. So he was ultimately dropped from that spot. And then comes the big controversy with the bowling action, which was reported by the umpires during the match against KXIP where his bowling restricted KXIP and KKR won the match by 2 runs. He was dropped from the next few matches to sort out the action. When he made a comeback, his bowling was economical and his batting was a the talk of the town for a day but that remained only a one day wonder.
Batting Order – KKR batting order was confusing in one word. How can the world’s best no. 4 in white ball cricket come at 5 or 6? The opening slot always remained a vague issue concerning the KKR camp, with no fixed partner for Gill, up the order. Tripathi’s role was changed multiple times which is hard for any professional cricketer to get used to. Narine’s pinch hitting was successful in one match but then he continued to fail. Nitish Rana was also a mixed bag.
Captaincy Conundrum – The issue with the captaincy was raised in the middle of the tournament and Morgan was made the new captain to everyone’s surprise. Everyone agreed that a World Cup winning captain is better but no one expected Karthik to bid adieu to captaincy. He cited his batting form to disassociate himself with the captaincy so that he can concentrate on his dip in form in batting. This change made a mindset change in the KKR camp and made the details more complicated and uncertain in the middle of the tournament. This didn’t result in much success as they continued to have inconsistent wins.
Poor Team selection – There was no fixed playing XI for KKR. Everyone was having a mixed bag performance. To counter the problem, the bench strength was used. Some were logical which to everyone’s dismay ultimately failed, like the experiment with Tom Banton. But who brings Rinku Singh in No. 4 instead of Morgan in a must win game? Then a talented bowler like Kuldeep Yadav was made to sit in the bench for most of the games.
These points will haunt the KKR till the next season. And to have an impact, they need to regroup and address these concern.