Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik will have to find urgent solutions to the faltering performances of his star-studded team when he takes on a resurgent Chennai Super Kings at the IPL here on Wednesday. KKR acquired World Cup winning England captain Eoin Morgan, but management placed their trust in Karthik and asked him to lead the team. However, some of his puzzling decisions, aside from his own bad streak with the bat (37 runs in four games), have put the Indian batter-wicketkeeper on the throw line.
Promoting himself ahead of the star duo of Morgan and Andre Russell and preferring Sunil Narine at the top spot over Big Bash sensation Tom Banton, who has been compared to Kevin Pietersen, has put 35-year-old Karthik on the bench.
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Narine has been woefully out of place, handling just 27 runs in four games with a strike rate of 87.09 and it’s about time the team brought in the young Englishman with a bang.
KKR has many resources in bowling, but it seems that Karthik has not been able to manage them well and his match against Delhi Capitals could be a good example.
Pat Cummins’ not-so-impressive performance has added to the team’s troubles.
The field in Sharjah is a batsman’s paradise and both teams stumbled past the 200 mark, but it is the bowlers who made the difference in a close chase.
Morgan’s partner and Rahul Tripathi sought to seal it, but bowlers from Delhi strangled KKR’s batting to death.
Karthik will need to back his players, especially Indian leader Kuldeep Yadav, who appears to have been underutilized and threw just nine overs after being eliminated from the Delhi game.
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Chennai, on the other hand, rediscovered part of the form that made them three-time champions. After three losses on the trot, the team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be looking to make their ascent to the top four from the end.
Not known for modifying his side much, Dhoni persisted with Shane Watson and the Australian veteran eventually came back with an unbeaten 83.
Chasing 179 against Kings XI Punjab, Watson and Faf du Plessis did light work with their pitchers on a record 181 undefeated runs to seal the chase.
Coming into the form of a failed higher order is what CSK needed to get off of a miserable start, and once that was done, they would undoubtedly look like favorites against a struggling KKR.
Teams (of) Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (C), Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Varun Chakravarthy, Tom Banton, Rahul Tripathi, Chris Green, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Ali Khan.
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (C), M Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla, Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner, Josh Hazlewood, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran, N Jagadeesan, KM Asif, Monu Kumar, R Sai Kishore, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Karn Sharma.
Kick-off: 7.30 pm IST.
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