IPL 2020: 5 biggest disappointments for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 13

KKR finished fifth on the points table owing to confusion in team combination throughout the IPL 13.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were expected to do big things in the IPL 2020 especially after the amount of money they spent in the auction and the quality of their players in the squad.

The franchise had retained the likes of Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti apart from their core of Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Shubman Gill amongst others. They however let go of Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Joe Denly, and Anrich Nortje amongst others before the auction.

During the auctions, two big players that KKR splurged on were England’s 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, who they bought for INR 5.25 Cr, and Australian pacer Pat Cummins, who became the most expensive overseas player ever at INR 15.50 Cr. Apart from these, KKR also bought the newest T20 sensation Tom Banton, Varun Chakravarthy, and Rahul Tripathi apart from few others.

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Their squad looked one of the strongest in terms of both batting and bowling and it looked like KKR would go beyond the playoffs stages. They had narrowly missed out on a top-four finish in IPL 2019, but unfortunately, history repeated itself as they once again finished 5^th on the points table.

Dinesh Karthik led the team well in the first half of the tournament when KKR had won four matches out of 6 played. But for some reason, Karthik decided to give up the captaincy to Eoin Morgan, and they went onto lose four out of their last seven matches and were eliminated from the playoffs’ race.

Most of the blame can be put on their batting order, which was never a set one. Apart from Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana, all of their batsmen were kept moving around, not letting them make a spot in the batting order their own, proved disastrous. Narine was discarded as an opener after a few initial matches and the same was done with Rahul Tripathi as well.

However, the biggest failure for KKR came when their captain and big foreign names failed to perform up to the reputation and hampered the team’s chances. Therefore Team COC has chosen five such players, who influenced the team’s disappointing performance the most.

Check out the 5 biggest disappointments for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 13

ANDRE RUSSELL

Andre Russell had a bumper IPL 2019 where he made over 500 runs at a strike rate of over 180 and hit more than 50 sixes himself. He won KKR matches from impossible situations and the same was expected from him this time also.

But Russell came into IPL 2020 with an injury to his hamstring and bowled just 18 overs in 10 matches. He also couldn’t find the middle of the bat when it came to him to destroy bowling attacks as per his reputation. He made 117 runs in 10 matches at a strike rate of 144.44 with the highest score of 25, with just 6 sixes to his name.

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He then injured his knee during a fielding attempt and it further hampered his already fragile body and it overall hurt KKR’s plans as well, as they depended heavily on Russell to get them out a problem with his bat. His injured body couldn’t take the load of such strain and it affected his game and KKR’s chances for playoffs qualification.

SUNIL NARINE

Another Caribbean star who has been KKR’s cornerstone is Sunil Narine. He had 122 wickets in 110 matches before IPL 2020 and was expected to bring in much-needed experience in the bowling lineup, especially with Kuldeep Yadav’s struggles with confidence since the last IPL 2019 was a horrible experience for the left-arm chinaman.  

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KKR had invested in Varun Chakravarthy as Sunil Narine’s backup and no one had fathomed that he will turn out to be their best bowler and Narine would struggle with both fitness and his bowling action. His bowling action was reported by the authorities in midst of the tournament, causing him to sit out of a few matches.

Narine didn’t look like his old self at all and even with the bat, apart from one innings of 64, he didn’t look threatening at all. Overall in 10 IPL 2020 matches, he made 121 runs at a strike rate of 142.35 and picked 5 wickets at an economy of 7.94. Far from what KKR would have expected from their first-rate spinner in such a crunch tournament.  

PAT CUMMINS

Pat Cummins was bought for INR 15.50 Cr in the IPL 2020 auction and just couldn’t justify the price tag in the first half of the tournament. KKR expected Cummins to give them crucial wickets in powerplay overs, but he instead excelled with the bat more making 146 runs including his maiden IPL fifty- 53*.

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Cummins did pick 12 wickets in 14 matches, but 9 of those wickets came in the last 4 matches including a spell of 4/34 against the Rajasthan Royals. His economy of 7.86 didn’t help KKR’s cause much, which led them to bring in Lockie Ferguson instead, who impressed more.

Cummins would definitely need to do more in the next IPL 2021 to justify that price tag if KKR decides to retain him and pay that hefty price.   

DINESH KARTHIK

Dinesh Karthik’s job as the KKR captain was already thought of being in jeopardy the moment KKR decided to buy Eoin Morgan, probably the best white-ball captain in the world today. Morgan transformed a dull England side into world beaters with white-ball cricket in a matter of 4 years’ time and won a World Cup as well.

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Karthik’s biggest woes was his struggles with the bat as he managed just 169 runs in 14 matches often coming in at no.4 spot in the batting order. Meanwhile, Morgan finished with 418 runs at a strike rate of 138.41, far better than Karthik’s 126.11. It came as no surprise as Karthik gave up the captaincy in the middle of the season to Morgan, to focus on his batting.

He did play a couple of good innings as a finisher, but it came too late to do well to the franchise and it remains to be seen what will be the fate of Karthik in the KKR team going forward.

SHUBMAN GILL

When you read Shubman Gill’s numbers in the IPL 2020, they are very impressive. He made 440 runs in 14 matches at an average of 33.84 with 3 half-centuries with the best score of 70*. He hit 9 sixes and 44 fours as well. However, once your sight reaches the strike-rate column of the stats, the picture becomes clear, as to why Gill proved to be KKR’s biggest undoing.

Earlier with Sunil Narine or Chris Lynn at the top, KKR used to dominate the opposition in the powerplays, setting up the game for the likes of Rana and Gill in the middle order to take the team to a big total or chase down targets. Both Narine and Lynn had a terrific strike-rate at the top and it helped KKR a lot despite having no big-hitter until Russell came in at no.6.

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However, with Narine not firing and Lynn being released, Shubman Gill took over as the opener, but couldn’t force the pace in the first six overs. His strike-rate of 117.96 is criminally low for an opener, not only in the IPL but in T20 cricket when others are striking at well over the 130-140 mark. Gill used up valuable deliveries in his game as being the anchor while others batted around him.

But it meant that when he inevitably got out in 12^th or 13^th over, the overall score would still not be where it should have been to give the hitters a good launchpad. KKR must need to pair Gill with someone who takes advantage of the powerplays and even Shubman needs to work on his power-hitting because if he doesn’t, he wouldn’t be the all format opener Team India is looking for the next decade after the Rohit-Dhawan era.