McCullum also talked about the turnaround of KKR in the IPL 14 in the UAE.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Brendon McCullum opened up about KKR’s turnaround and his style of coaching in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) in the UAE.
KKR qualifying for the IPL 2021 final was one of the massive turnarounds in IPL cricket. However, the franchise failed to cross the final hurdle and lost the trophy to Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
In the first phase of the IPL 2021 in India, KKR lost 5 out of 7 matches, but the side made an incredible turnaround as they won 5 games out of 7 in the UAE leg of the tournament and went on to play the summit clash where they lost their title to CSK in Dubai.
Recalling the IPL 14, McCullum said his style of coaching or leadership was perhaps a little wild but was happy that KKR reached the final with their intent and aggressive style of play.
McCullum told SENZ Drive: “My style of leadership or coaching was perhaps a little wild. It takes a little while to really dig down and thankfully we were able to do it in the second half of the tournament and we got a bit more intent into batting and then we were able to play a bit more of an aggressive form of cricket. Thankfully it translated to results and we got on a bit of a roll.”
He concluded, “We rocked in the second half of the tournament, we were kind of dead and buried (after starting with two wins and five losses). We were under a fair amount of pressure with two wins from seven games and seventh on the table out of eight. The expectations on us were pretty low.”
(With PTI Inputs)