IPL 2019: What should be KKR's ideal playing XI
Kolkata Knight Riders had a fairly decent campaign in IPL 2018 as they finished third in the tournament. The one department where they really struggled during the last season was their fast bowling department. They have bought a couple of fast bowlers, Anrich Nortje, and Lockie Ferguson, to add fire powers to the start of the bowling.
The two-time champions have bought Windies T20I captain Carlos Brathwaite for five crore INR. The other signings include Joe Denly, Harry Gurney, Yara Prithviraj, Nikhil Naik, and Shrikant Mudhe.
Despite buying a couple of good fast bowlers, KKR looks a tad weak as there are no experienced fast bowlers in their arsenal. The spin-heavy KKR franchise has good batting depth too.
Without much ado, here is the ideal playing XI for Kolkata Knight Riders.
#1 Sunil Narine
Sunil Narine, a well-known mystery spinner for close to a decade, has astonishingly improved his batting prowess and became a regular opener for Kolkata Knight Riders. The West Indian all-rounder has opened 26 of the 32 matches KKR has played in the last two seasons.
As an opener, he has scored 565 runs at an amazing strike rate of 187.71. His quick-fire starts have helped KKR middle-order to mount a huge score game after game.
As as a bowler, Sunil Narine is one of the best in the T20 business. He has taken 17 wickets last season at an impressive strike-rate of 21.53. He mostly bowls his quota of four overs and has a career economy rate of less seven runs per over.
Sunil, who has been playing T20 cricket all around the world, has the advantage of focussing on shorter format of the game throughout the year. This makes more potent than other International players who play all the format.