Overview : The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have been a decent side over the years. They reached the playoffs for the first time in 2011 and won the tournament twice, in 2012 and 2014 respectively. KKR will be looking to better their performance from last season where they finished fifth.
Captain : Dinesh Karthik
Support Staff : B McCullum (head coach), Abhishek Nayar (Asst. Coach), Kyle Mills (bowling coach), James Foster (Fielding coach).
Squad : –
Strengths : The batting offered by KKR is pure box-office. Morgan, Russel in the middle-order and Narine with Banton playing fearless cricket at the top of the innings. Karthik and Nitish Rana have been their mainstays for while now.
Weaknesses : Their pace bowling lacks variety with Mavi, Nagarkoti Ferguson and Cummins relying on express pace on most occasions. Harry Gurney was a skillful bowler but unfortunately, he won’t be available.
Player to watch out for : –
M Siddharth : The Tamil Nadu spinner made his debut in the domestic T20 tournament and picked up 12 wickets in 5 games at an economy of just 4.94. The fact that he’s a left-arm spinner, means that he will be useful against most teams who have right-handed batsmen in majority.
Team combination and probable XI : –
They have to decide on who will open with Narine and which batsman will play at number three. One out of Nagarkoti, Mavi and Warrier one will feature in the XI. Russel will be used as a floater.
1. Narine 2. Gill 3. Rana 4. Morgan 5. Karthik 6. Russel 7. Rinku Singh 8. Cummins 9. Kuldeep 10. P Krishna.
Predicted finish : Two players hold key to their success, Russel and Kuldeep. If both of them find form, they will definitely be a part of the playoffs.
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Kanishk Sharma 