Barring a closing look in 2021, Kolkata Knight Riders have not fairly managed to provide the products within the current IPL seasons. However, with two of their key figures again into the combo for 2024, within the type of captain Shreyas Iyer and mentor Gautam Gambhir, they’re wanting like a special outfit this time round.
Let’s have a look at how KKR may fare this season by analysing their squad.
Strengths
Finishers
Kolkata Knight Riders have two of probably the most harmful finishers going round in T20 cricket at their disposal within the type of Rinku Singh and the Caribbean veteran Andre Russell. Rinku loved a break-out season final yr and gained video games for the facet single-handedly.Â
The southpaw aggregated 474 runs in 14 video games at a shocking strike charge of 149.53. He scored 4 half-centuries and was additionally constant in phrases of run-scoring as he averaged 59.25 with the willow in hand.
He was rewarded for his good season and earned his India call-up. Rinku is coming into the seventeenth version of the IPL on the again of some match-winning performances for Team India and therefore should be excessive on confidence.
On the opposite hand, Russell has been one of the constant performers for KKR through the years and can be anticipated to carry out an identical position with the willow in hand this season. The feared ball-striker from the Caribbean has an IPL profession strike charge of 174.00 and a powerful IPL season can cement a spot for him within the West Indian squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Spinners
In addition to their good finishers, KKR even have three high quality spinners of their arsenal. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma present a formidable look to KKR’s bowling assault which is in any other case over-reliant on Mitchell Starc.
Narine is one of probably the most skilled gamers within the KKR squad for the season. The veteran has bagged 163 wickets in 162 IPL video games through the years at a powerful financial system charge of 6.73.
With 11 wickets in 14 video games throughout the IPL 2023 version, Narine had an underwhelming match and wish to redeem himself this season.
KKR’s thriller spinner Varun is one of their largest weapons. Varun has loads of arrows in his quiver and batters largely battle to select him. He has snared 62 wickets in 56 video games at an financial system charge of 7.45 and has a four-for and five-for to his title.
Suyash has a really well-disguised incorrect’un and it helped him outfox many batters within the earlier season. After an early burst, Suyash struggled to ship persistently for KKR and it’s one thing he wish to tackle this season.
Weaknesses
Over-reliance on Mitchell Starc
KKR’s pacers have been unable to make early inroads within the powerplay over the last season and struggled to stem the circulation of runs on the loss of life as effectively. In order to handle the identical, KKR went after Starc on the IPL 2024 public sale and purchased his companies for a whopping INR 24.75 crore.
However, barring Starc their tempo assault wears a really blunk look with Harshit Rana and Chetan Sakariya accessible of their ranks. Their abroad signing Dushmantha Chameera is but to affix the camp as he’s nursing an harm and due to this fact KKR appear over-reliant on Starc.
Captain’s health
KKR have been dealt a serious blow final season when Shreyas Iyer was dominated out for the whole match resulting from again harm and needed to bear surgical procedure to repair the problem. The sudden change in management damage the facet and KKR did not make it to the playoffs.
Though Shreyas is out there proper from the outset this season, he’s coming into the match battling again spasms.
Shreyas encountered again points within the lead-up to IPL 2024 and needed to miss the Ranji Trophy quarters for Mumbai. He did flip up for the semis and the finals however could not take the sector on the fourth and the fifth day of the ultimate in opposition to Vidarbha as a result of identical drawback.
KKR want a match Shreyas to go all the best way this season as an harm to him can jeopardize their marketing campaign.
Opportunities
Other than Mumbai Indians (five-time IPL champions) and Chennai Super Kings (five-time IPL winners), KKR have been the third-most profitable franchise within the historical past of the match. KKR gained the IPL for the primary time in 2012 and repeated the identical feat in 2014 to emerge as a pressure to be reckoned with.
However, since then they have not fairly lived as much as the expectations of their followers. After the fantastic 2014 season, KKR have solely managed to achieve the ultimate as soon as and it occurred throughout the 2021 season the place they misplaced to Chennai Super Kings.
Hence, the 2024 season is a superb alternative for KKR to win the belief of their followers again with one other silverware.
The seventeenth version of the match has witnessed a reunion between Gautam Gambhir and KKR. It was Gambhir who led them to the 2 title finishes in 2012 and 2014 and now has a job at hand to recreate the magic because the mentor of the facet.
Threats
KKR have tried as many as 12 opening combos lately within the match which matches on to counsel that they’re but to slender down on a gap pair that would get them off to fliers.
Kolkata’s marketing campaign is about to get underway within the 2024 season and they’re prone to check out a brand new opening pair but once more. They have Phil Salt and Rahmanullah Gurbaz as abroad opening choices however just one of the 2 will doubtless get a spot within the XI.
If KKR do not get their opening pair spot on early within the season then that can put excessive strain on their center and the decrease center order.
