Former champions Kolkata Knight Riders will look to strike a perfect balance under the astonishing leadership of Eoin Morgan, starting their IPL campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday. One of the best in the business in the white-ball format, Morgan commanded a simple-looking KKR in Dinesh Karthik’s central UAE last season. As time goes on, the Morgan-led side finished on the same points with SRH and RCB, but the two teams advanced to better run-rates as KKR missed the playoffs for the second time in succession.
In his first term as a full-time captain, all eyes will be on the one-day World Cup-winning English captain, who will consider replacing the cricketers’ misfiring legion and bringing back the illustrious days of the two-time IPL champions.
In Shubman Gill, he has a brilliant young top-order batsman who can shift gears easily, while Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana and veteran Karthik, who are relieved of the burden of captaincy, can form the core of their Indian batting. Huh.
Then there is Captain Morgan who will see 2019 MVP Andre Russell to bat through the overs, hoping to regain his explosive touch after a calm season.
Russell had won the worst season by over-dependency in KKR of Jamaica last season in 13 innings in an innings of nine matches without a match-winning performance by his standards.
Another West Indies big flop in the UAE was Sunil Narine. Whether it was his questionable bowling action or his failure against short ball, Naren, who was instrumental in his two wins in 2012 and 2014, saw the shadow of his past.
It is time they think beyond Trinidad and buy Shakib Al Hasan at this year’s auction. On the slow Chepauk strip, all eyes will be on the new ‘Knight’ and 40-year-old Harbhajan Singh, which could be his last IPL.
He also has a mystery spinner in Varun Chakraborty who made it rich in Narayan’s absence last year but his fitness is a concern. One of the more consistent sides of the IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost before the final hurdle, going down to runners-up Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 last year.
SRH will be relieved by the return of India’s senior fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who played just four matches in the IPL last year due to a hip injury.
Fresh from his fine form during the white-ball leg of the England series at home, Bhuvneshwar will lead his attack with Yorker specialist T Natarajan. Add Afghan star spinner Rashid Khan to the bowling lineup and the ‘Orange Army’ looks quite balanced in their attack.
But SRH’s real strength will be their disastrous top order with the pairing of David Warner and in-form Johnny Grasto. They also have Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey, who are in a solid top four.
Wriddhiman Saha also opened for SRH last year as a wicketkeeper-batsman and will prove to be a point after being sidelined due to Rishabh Pant’s bravery in the national team. It remains to be seen who will play the role of finisher for SRH as they feel that the muscle teams are badly lacking in the last five overs.
KKR have a slight lead against the Orange Army led by the Purple Brigade.
The match will start at 7.30 pm IST.
Squads
Promoted
KKR: Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narayan, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Locker Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagerkoti, Sandeep Warrier, Prisidh Krishna, Rahul Tripathi , Varun Chakraborty, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan Negi.
SRH: David Warner (C), Kane Williamson, Virat Singh, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Wriddhiman Saha, Johnny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Srivats Goswami, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Kedar Jadhav, J Suchit, Jason Holder, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad , Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khalil Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Shahbaz Nadeem and Mujib ur Rehman.
Topics mentioned in this article
.
Add Comment