Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has opined that two-time IPL champions Kolkata knight Riders (KKR) should use premier pacer Pat Cummins as a strike bowler at the top rather than using him at the death.
Kolkata Knight Rider (KKR) bought Pat Cummins last year for a whopping ₹15.5 crore. After having a sluggish start the Aussie pacer improved his performance and ended IPL 2020 with 12 wickets to his name.
However, the pacer was one of the positives for KKR with the bat as he scored 146 runs at a decent average of 20.85 and a strike rate of 128.07, including an unbeaten half-century against the Mumbai Indians (MI).
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During a discussion on Star Sports, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra said that KKR needs to acknowledge that Cummins is not their 'gun death bowler'. Therefore his role should be to extract whatever movement possible in the first few overs and take a couple of wickets.
“He is not your gun death bowler so that admission is important to begin with that even though we have paid him 15.5 crores and by his own admission the ball doesn't start swinging a lot more because you have been paid that kind of sum.
“So his job is to just make the new ball talk, take a couple of wickets at the top and break the back of the opposition's batting in the first six overs," Aakash Chopra said on Star Sports.
Chopra said that if Cummins can strike early blows quite often then KKR should use his remaining over judiciously.
"If he is able to do that on multiple occasions, he will be fine and then use the remaining couple of overs judiciously. I don't think you will be giving him two or three overs at the backend of a T20 inning,” he said.
Cricketer-turned-commentator said that KKR should use Pat Cummins’ skills with new ball and allow someone else to flourish at the death.
"He has got bounce, he has got pace, he has got the ability to move the ball sideways after pitching but those attributes are great when the ball is new. So this is how you need to use Pat Cummins and allow somebody else to actually flourish at the backend of a T20 inning,” said Aakash Chopra.
Chopra further said that if Andre Russell is not at his best, Pat Cummins can hit the long ball.
“He is also batting well, so lets not discount that aspect of his game because if Andre Russell is misfiring from time to time, there is a Pat Cummins who can hit the long ball and he was fairly consistent with the bat in the 2020 edition. So maybe a bit more from the bat of Pat Cummins," he concluded.
KKR will start their IPL 2021 campaign against SRH and Eoin Morgan's side would be hoping their fortunes turn around and they clinch their third IPL title.
(Star Sports inputs)
