KKR 2024 - find a batting weakness if you can
What are the first things that come to mind when you think of Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) batting? - Bouncers, awkward pulls, top-edges, catches?
Fair enough. After all, the franchise captain, Shreyas Iyer, has meme pages dedicated to his short-ball weakness. In IPL 2023, every team came at KKR with different plan 'A's but Plan 'B' was always to bounce their batting lineup out.
It was the common thread in all their losses in a seventh-place finish, even at the Eden Gardens. The itch was so palpable that when the BCCI announced the two-bouncer rule for IPL 2024, KKR found the most comment mentions on X.
Anrich Nortje must have thought the same when he saw their newest batting addition, 18-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi, come to the crease in Vizag on Wednesday - "there's not much information on him but he's KKR so, short-ball?".
But his 139.1 kph leg-side bumper was deposited past fine-leg for four and he didn't try that again for a while. DC's all-rounder Sumit Kumar did a bit later in the innings but got similar treatment as Raghuvanshi raced to 54 (27) in his maiden IPL innings, until mistiming a ramp against Nortje's innocent bouncer outside-off.
Still, his fire-cracking cameo continued the momentum generated by Sunil Narine on the other end and his wicket left KKR superbly placed at 176-3 after 13 overs. Andre Russell built on it further to help the team reach the second-highest total in the tournament's history of 272-7, which they defended with a margin of 106 runs.
"They got off to a flying start in the powerplay. They were around 90 after six overs. That phase is not ideal; if that happens at the start of the game, then you are always trying to find your way back into the game and they didn't allow us to do that today. They were relentless," DC coach Ponting said after the match.
In KKR's IPL 2024 opener against SunRisers Hyderabad, another franchise debutant, Ramandeep Singh, faced a similar task in Hyderabad. Pat Cummins tried to bounce him out on his second ball but he got away with a top-edge.
Encouraged, Cummins tried it again and Ramadeep reverted with a smashing pull over deep square leg for six. Marco Jansen also tried to make him smell the leather a couple of overs later but Ramadeep hooked him over deep fine too.
Cummins ultimately drew a catch out of him but not before he had swayed the game in the middle-overs, helping KKR recover from 51/4 to 105/5.
The common factor in Angkrish and Ramandeep is their height. The latter is recorded to be comfortably over six feet while the former, though still a teenager, looked at least a couple of inches taller than Narine, who is 5'10, at the crease.
In IPL 2023, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Jason Roy, Shreyas, Nitish Rana, and Rinku Singh, KKR lacked that authoritative tall figure in the line-up. And all these batters were often sitting ducks against the tearaway quicks. The only tall batter, Venkatesh Iyer, who also plays the pull well, didn't have a set place in the 11.
Having two new lanky figures completely changes the dynamic of KKR's batting. Now, despite the new bouncer rule, there hardly are any situations when the opposition can pepper bouncers on both ends without fearing being hit.
It divides the roles better too. All the aforementioned relatively shorter players are superb operators against spin and led the few victories KKR could manage in IPL 2023.
The two-time champions were rightly labeled as a spin-loving team but that tag has slowly been dissolved after the three brilliant batting performances so far.
Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar leading the charge?
The role of a 'mentor' is very ambiguous in the IPL but when it comes to unlocking young batters, it's what Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar do. There are countless examples of young players attributing their success to them.
But perhaps the short-ball proficiency has been specifically propelled by them too. Gambhir, who, despite being not too tall himself was an excellent puller. Last year, while on duty as a pundit, he had spoken in detail about Iyer's short-ball weakness.
"You should be able to pull the balls that you can only control," Gambhir had said. "I think he (Shreyas) is hanging back too much because he is thinking everyone is going to bowl short and I am going to take them on."
That "hanging back too much" apprehensions were also visible in Narine on the few occasions he opened the innings in the previous three seasons. Short balls, especially on the leg side, used to be his obvious weakness. And when he wouldn't get out on those, he'd edge a fuller one behind trying a loose drive.
That almost happened on Tuesday too but Rishabh Pant didn't hear the edge he caught and got too late to review. However, once Narine went through that phase, there was a new-found clarity tangible in his strokeplay - he was hardly trying to muscle it. The mantra wasn't see-and-smash but see-and-time, in the gaps, wherever they might be. And that earned him and KKR 85 (39), his IPL best.
Narine's consistency (he's ninth in the Orange Cap race) alongside another newcomer Phil Salt's ability to hit everyone on the up has given KKR more fiery opening stands in three games than they had in the whole of IPL 2023.
To remember the last time KKR encouraged this much confidence at the top of the order, you'll have to inevitably jog your memory back to the time Gambhir was either opening himself or picking others to do it by sitting at number three.
In IPL 2023, KKR's best seven batters had an overall average of 29.8 and struck at 143.9, with major strike-rate issues against right-arm leg-break (128.6) and left-arm fast (132.9) bowlers. In IPL 2024 so far, those numbers have soared up to overall 40.3 and 183.9, and strike rates of 172.7 and 223.5, respectively.
No type of bowling has been able to keep KKR batters lower than a strike rate of 145.5 this season and the overall dot-ball percentage has fallen from 37.9 to 30.7.
The Men in Purple and Gold have comfortably cleared totals of 200 twice already and in the third game, they chased 183 in just 16.5 overs. In comparison, they put up 200 or more runs in an innings just four times in IPL 2023.
With Andre Russell firing as only he can and Rinku Singh not required for his heroics so far, there's no real weakness for the opponents to exploit. All of it when KKR are yet to play to their strengths of spin and low scores. With three wins and a fat net run rate of 2.518, no team deserves to enjoy the view from the top more.
KKR tried to bash teams with the bat by continuously going hard in IPL 2023 too. Now, there's not only a method but also a lot of skill improvement behind the madness too. There's personnel in place to buttress the philosophy and there's an environment to bring back the long-lost courage -- a glimpse of which Angkrish showed against Rasikh Salam -- which used to be a feature of the glory years.
When Gambhir joined, he spoke about wanting to leave the franchise in a better place. The work on changing the identity is already on. If he can maintain this, there would be so many things to speak about KKR's batting, that the words, bouncers, awkward pulls, etc, might not even get a mention.