3 big qualities DJ Bravo would bring to KKR as Gautam Gambhir's mentorship replacement
Social media posts from big brands mean as much as you want them to. And so, it seemed crazy that Kolkata Knight Riders' first post to unveil DJ Bravo as their new mentor -- a significant announcement of Gautam Gambhir's replacement that came out of the blue -- had the West Indian holding a bat in his hand.
In a recent interview with Sportskeeda, Chennai Super Kings' pacer Simarjeet Singh, who worked under Bravo for the last two years, called him the world's "best T20 bowler" of the era. There aren't many young pacers that would disagree, given he played 582 T20s for almost 30 teams to pick a table-topping 631 wickets.
But did KKR even need to snoop away such a great bowling name from Chennai Super Kings (which is not a small ask in itself), even if he is the best man for the job? Didn't they already have Bharat Arun, the former India bowling coach and the master chef behind the national team's fast-bowling revolution?
Furthermore, didn't KKR lose as many as three coaches -- a mentor, a batting coach, and a fielding coach -- who were all batters first, leaving a gaping hole in the willow department? All those questions are valid, at least until the defending champions sign a batting coach capable of filling Abhishek Nayar's gap.
But Bravo won't just be any other former cricketer helping out an IPL franchise in need with small inputs here and there. This signing is as big as the man he replaced, Gambhir, who led the team to its first title since 2014.
Below, we explain in three points what Bravo would bring to the table to add to Arun, offset Gambhir's absence, and elevate KKR to the next level:
#3 Biggest wealth of bowling experience in the world
West Indies, Chennai Super Kings, Chittagong Kings, Comilla Victorians, Dhaka Dynamites, Dolphins, Essex, Fortune Barishal, Gujarat Lions, Kent, Lahore Qalandars, Melbourne Renegades, Melbourne Stars, MI Emirates, Middlesex, Mumbai Indians, Northern Superchargers, Paarl Rocks, Quetta Gladiators, Rangpur Riders, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Surrey, Sydney Sixers, Texas Super Kings, Trinbago Knight Riders, Trinidad & Tobago, Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel, Victoria, West Indians and Worcestershire.
These are all the teams Bravo has represented in T20s around the world, according to ESPNcricinfo. One look at the distance between some of the cities mentioned there would tell you why any franchise in the world would have paid top-dollar to have him on board soon after his retirement.
It's an unmatched treasure of experience of playing on various pitches, conditions, weather, wind changes, and so on. Given how successful he has been in almost every franchise competition he has played in, he can probably predict how a pitch would behave and what lengths to bowl on it in just one look.
Arun and head coach Chandrakant Pandit would have no issues in giving Bravo the respect he deserves in the KKR dressing room. They'd know that the IPL's highest wicket-taking pacer would have stellar T20-specific inputs not just about bowling but also team building, scouting, talent development and a lot more.
You'd rather have someone like that on your side than your opponent's.
#2 Guidance to the youngsters of a bowling-first team
Either by coincidence or factors that haven't been researched properly, KKR have been a bowling-first team for most of their existence. Their two most expensive signings in auctions have been pacers, their oldest-serving player is a spinner, and apart from a couple, most of their new young talents have been bowlers.
If the stakeholders try to build upon last season's success, the likes of Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya and Sakib Hussain would again be a big part of their retention/auction ideas. Even if they fail to get all of them back, the team might push to get newer scouted pacers and try and produce the next crop.
Bravo is simply perfect for this situation. Apart from Simarjeet, other CSK pacers, like Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Deshpande and Deepak Chahar, among others credit him for playing a massive role in de-cluttering their thinking, helping them improve their execution in pressure situations and enhancing their range of skills.
In the long term, irrespective of how KKR's results are on the field, Bravo and Arun together might be able to produce some of the best young fast bowlers and add a few more to the pipeline of headaches for national selectors.
#1 Character and soft-skills in the post-Gambhir era
To explain this, we need to go back to Afghanistan's match against Bangladesh in the 2024 men's T20 World Cup which had a semi-final spot on the line.
With Bangladesh needing nine runs off eight balls, Bravo, the bowling consultant for the Afghans, pretended to advise his team to bowl short balls when he realized he was being shown on the big screen at the ground. It turned out to be a bluff that fooled the broadcasters as well as the batter, Musfiqur Rahim, who got out LBW.
More than his street smarts, this is an example of what kind of character Bravo is and how aligned he is to win, which is what KKR need. After all, it's not easy to fill the shoes left by Gambhir, who joined the team almost like a guiding light, binding them together by just giving them the belief that they can achieve what he did.
Bravo, only a bowling coach at CSK, will have a much bigger role in shaping a franchise to his image at KKR. It's quite an underrated aspect of running an IPL team but Bravo would be able to give KKR an identity that fans can relate to, just like they had under Gambhir and like CSK have under Stephen Fleming.
Bravo will also bring some soft skills to the coaching staff. Between the intelligent old firm of Pandit, Arun and Gambhir, batting coach Nayar and fielding coach Ryan ten Doeschate were like big brothers to the players -- Bravo can easily fill that gap.
Results aren't guaranteed in sports. And KKR found themselves in a particularly bad situation by losing half of their coaching staff after winning the title. But by signing Bravo here, they have signalled that their good processes remain intact and they are taking the right steps to keep building something that aligns with everything KKR, while also pushing it forward.