(Cricket news) KKR haven't really hit the ground running this first half of the season, too many inconstient performances has led the team down and now require a herculean effort to qualify for the playoffs. The Knights basically have to win 6 out of their 7 matches to stand any chances to make it to the playoffs in the second half of the season. The two time champions will be without their primer fast bowler Pat Cummins who opted out of the IPL to focus on the T20 World Cup and Ashes. KKR have played 7 matches and have won 2 and lost 5 as they lie 7th in the table
One thing KKR have shown this season is that they were giving consistent runs at specific roles, last year apart from Shubman Gill, no one had a fixed batting position in the team. Although this season they have stuck with Gill-Rana-Tripathi combination in the top order followed by Morgan-Russell-Karthik trio but the issue is that they looked good individually but as a eleven they haven't clicked in unison. They have had games where the top order performs but the middle order fails and vice versa. Cummins was arguably their best player in the Indian leg, picking up 9 wickets and scoring valuable runs in the lower order but him pulling out will serve as a massive jolt to the franchise. They have replaced Cummins with New Zealand T20 captain Tim Southee.
The problem with the first half of the season was that the team didn’t click on both fronts, either some matches their batting was good or bowling was bad. The main Achilles heel for this team is the inability to strike at regular intervals as in the last season KKR picked up the fewest wickets, a trend which continued this season as well. Their pacers have struggled to pick up wickets in the powerplay (3 wickets in 7 innings during the powerplay) this has hampered the spinners in the middle overs as the batsman usually used to get settled in.
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The only positive heading into the tournament is the form of Russell and Narine as they both had a good CPL. The added benefit of Varun Chakravarthy getting selected for the T20 World Cup should act as a catalyst to perform better and showcase his talent to the Indian fans. Last season, Chakravarthy finished the season with 17 wickets as the slow turning pitches as well as his variations helped baamboozle the batsmans. KKR need a miraculous performance as their coach Bredon McCullum stated that they were “paralysed by the fear of failure” during the first half of the season as the second half of the season they need to rectify their mistakes as well as play fearless cricket as they have nothing to lose. KKR take on RCB on 20th September
Probable XI for the game:
1 Shubman Gill, 2 Nitish Rana, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Prasidh Krishna, 9 Shivam Mavi, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
