In the 9th match of the tournament on April 6 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 81 runs after losing their first game. After Shardul Thakur’s explosive 68(27) and Rinku Singh’s assured 46(33) ensured that they could cross 200 runs in the first innings, KKR recovered from a top-order collapse.
They set a goal of 205 runs, which would be extremely difficult for the hosts to achieve. There was an unmistakable absence of bleeding edge hitters in RCB’s playing XI, and the KKR spinners disposed of the hitters who could be dangers – Viral Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glen Maxwell. This season, KKR must prepare spin-friendly home wickets for three reasons:
1 Quality spin unit
Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy are two of the best spin bowlers in the competition for KKR. In addition, Suyash Sharma made a promising debut.
Beginning around 2020, Narine has gotten 33 wickets at an economy pace of 6.53, while Chakravarty has gotten 46 wickets at an economy pace of 7.07. The visiting batters would have a hard time getting wickets that help spin.
They could employ a strategy similar to CSK’s at Chepauk, using spinners to front-load the bowling attack and playing the right mix of utility and high-intent batters in their respective roles.
Narine is an unsurpassed extraordinary bowler in the organization – he is sufficiently adaptable to bowl in every one of the three phases of the game. Chakravarthy can bowl in the Powerplay as well, but his primary role in the game is as a middle-overs bowler.
2 Fast bowlers challenge the top order.
KKR’s top order appears to be among the competition’s weakest, especially without their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer. However, in order to improve their top-order batting, they have signed Jason Roy. Everyone knows that the Indian batsmen struggle against good pacers.
If the pitches contribute to spin, batters like Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer will enter the game and have the potential to make significant contributions in their respective roles. Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz plays turn well, while Jason Roy can likewise take on the spinners when he’s at his best. Rinku Singh is more at ease playing against pace, but he has the skill to win against spinners.
On paper, the Gurbaz, Roy, Iyer, Rana, and Rinku batting line-up against spin-heavy bowling attacks appears impressive. If KKR implements the aforementioned strategy, it will be interesting to observe their strategy.
3 will get them ready for particular away games
Over the years, the IPL has relied heavily on away games. While dominating at home, successful teams have at least had minimal success away from home. KKR can be better prepared for crucial away games (or playoffs) in such conditions by preparing spin-friendly home wickets.
They have won games in spin-friendly conditions before. The same can be seen in their performances during the second leg of the IPL 2021 in Sharjah.