IPL 7: Season Preview - Knights in not-so-shining armour

Save for 2012, when they were crowned champions, KKR have been lacking consistency in IPL

You may abhor the Indian Premier League more than your noisy neighbour or love it more than your fiancé, but ignore, you cannot. The roguish tournament that pleads with you to concentrate more on the make-up of Bollywood artistes than the sweet thud of willow swallows up your precious hours regularly every April-May on the pretext of providing entertainment. Yet you just can’t switch off the channel even if your mind desires.

The glamour and blitzkrieg of this tournament are what make it thrive in spite of the notorious incidents bruising its credentials time and again. Teams like Kolkata Knight Riders, with their principal owners in Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, enhance the glamour quotient manifold. At the end of the day, however, cricket is all that matters as the teams go head to head for the IPL trophy.

Right from the first year, the Kolkata outfit had been spending their fortunes on big names. Strangely though, the team has never really looked settled, barring the 2012 season when they emerged champions. They had changed their jersey, shuffled their squad and had done every possible thing to ensure victory. Yet they fell short of maintaining their streak and the pressure of defending the title overwhelmed the Knights as they ended another trophyless season in 2013.

With fresh faces in the team, the Knight Riders would be hoping – like every other season – to turn things around this time and ensure at least a Champions League T20 berth. A couple of strategy leaks from the Fly on the Wall – the existence of which is as real as the Himalayan Yeti – deployed by Sportskeeda to keep a watch on the Knights’ dressing room (with the sole purpose of guaranteeing no foul practices in these days of distress) is expected to grace these columns regularly.

Strengths

Spin remains KKR’s biggest strength

If Jacques Kallis, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib al Hasan and Andre Russell don’t make up a concrete all-rounders list, nothing else probably will. Given Kallis’s knack of sneaking in with important wickets which he exercises with startling regularity, he has proved to be one handy customer throughout the previous seasons. The first half of the IPL being scheduled in the Emirates, Shakib al Hasan is expected to be a regular in the playing eleven as the Knights look to bamboozle their opponents with an incisive spin attack.

The dilemma that arises is the number of overseas options available for the Knights. Sunil Narine, being retained by the franchisee, is almost certain to figure in the proceedings, and one wonders if Shakib may just have to miss out on quite a few matches so that a Tendo or a Russell may get a look in.

The pace artillery appears decent with Morne Morkel leading the charge and the likes of Vinay Kumar, Veer Pratap Singh, Umesh Yadav offering plenty of alternatives should the need arise. The bowling, however, remains spin-heavy – duly in accord with the Eden Gardens track – with the skipper depending on Piyush Chawla to keep things under control. Kuldeep Yadav, the under-19 star who had conquered the headlines for claiming a hat-trick in the recent U-19 World Cup, may chip in if the opportunity presents itself.

Weaknesses

Yusuf Pathan’s KKR stint has been riddled with inconsistent performances

Despite the assurance of Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis at the top, the batting line-up appears mildly fragile with no experienced names except Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey. Yusuf Pathan in his vastly unpredictable avatar may turn out to be yet another disappointing buy, while either of Chris Lynn or Ryan ten Doeschate seems likely to warm the benches more often than not.

The penchant for cameos may augur well for Debabrata Das who would desperately want to resurrect his first class career via this platform. Shakib al Hasan is another cricketer tailored for cameos, but it remains to be seen whether he gets the nudge in a sufficient number of matches.

According to the Fly on the Wall, the franchisee owners expect this season to be a fruitful one. “It’s unfortunate that even a hybrid of Trevor Bayliss and Wookeri Raman falls short of making a Gary Kirsten and that a name-list of all our players fails to inspire one as much as Sachin Tendulkar does, but we hope Mike Horn would be able to lift the confidence of the squad in his own unique ways just like he did to the Indian team in 2011. Gauti had been there in 2011, and it was he who recommended Mr. Horn. Frankly though, we hardly care what he does or how he does, as long as he does what he does.”

The Knight Riders’ season kicks off against the Mumbai Indians, a team looking to plug the loopholes and fill up the huge boots of Sachin Tendulkar. The encounter promises to be a tricky one with both the teams evenly matched – the minor on-paper advantage of the Knights being adequately cancelled out by their tradition of fumbling in season openers.

As of now, the expected first team for the match is:

Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manish Pandey, Debabrata Das, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav