Kolkata Knight Riders started their campaign successfully by winning the first three matches out of four. They had a fantastic start to their tournament but, soon the wheels fell off as they suffered five consecutive losses on the trot. Their seven-wicket win against Rajasthan Royals last night will provide some relief and ease to the team.
KKR were on the verge of repeating its 2019 record of six consecutive losses. There has been some constant changes and chopping in the team, sometimes due to form, injury or unavailibility of players. The team will now hope to make this win count and carry on the momentum from here onwards.
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“Five (losses) on the bounce is no easy feat to pull yourselves out of,” he started. “I just have to compliment all the guys within the group. I know it’s the first year for all the guys in this team but the guys have stuck really close and we sort of been pretty realistic that we could have easily been on the other side of two or three of those games in a slightly different scenario. It’s not easy to keep the faith sometimes but the boys are able to do it and tonight was a fantastic performance from a couple of guys who are very good friends in particular. Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh, they will grow so much from that performance.”
Brendon Mcullum said after win over RR.
Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy dropped – two retained players by KKR
Kolkata Knight Riders went into the auction, retaining Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy alongside Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. Their two retained Indian players not only lost their form and confidence, but also their places in the team. Venkatesh Iyer has scored just 132 runs in 9 matches with an average of 16.5, Varun Chakravarthy on the other hand is also having a miserable season with just 4 wickets in 8 matches with an economy of 8.82.
The duo of Varun and Iyer were one of the main reasons KKR reached the finals last year. Both of their performances are not upto the mark this season and that is why KKR are struggling at the bottom of the points table.
Opening headache for KKR
The opening combination has been the biggest headache for KKR as in 10 games, KKR have used 5 different opening combinations. KKR started with Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane and now both are out of the playing XI. The highest opening partnership for KKR was of 43 runs in their opening game against CSK and it has been downhill from since then.
Opening combinations for KKR in this IPL
| Opening Pair | Innings | Runs | Avg. | RPO |
| V Iyer, A Rahane | 5 | 108 | 21.60 | 5.94 |
| A Finch, V Iyer | 2 | 15 | 7.50 | 5.29 |
| S Billings, S Narine | 1 | 5 | 5.00 | 7.50 |
| A Finch, S Narine | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| A Finch, B Indrajith | 1 | 16 | 16.00 | 5.05 |
“Sometimes it doesn’t always work. It’s certainly not my way to keep chopping and changing, but sometimes you have to make the calls that you think are right. (Opening) certainly, an area where we need to tidy up or stumble on the right combination. We’ve been really good from overs 7 to 20 compared to the top teams and we’ve just been a little off in the powerplay.”
Brendon McCullum said on team performance.
What is next for KKR
KKR will now look on to continue this winning momentum as they prepare to face KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday at MCA stadium in Pune.
