IPL: Down and almost out, Knights face must-win game against Royals

It perhaps suited Kolkata Knight Riders, the beleaguered home team who are still winless after six games, were having a travel day after yet another loss to Gujarat Titans at Ahmedabad on Friday. This meant a day away from the prying eyes of their demanding fans – not to speak of the media at the nets – as they need to regroup within a day to return to winning ways against a highflying Rajasthan Royals.

 The season had panned out to be a nightmarish one for the three-time champions, who got the plot wrong right from the mini auction – though the spate of injuries to key members of their pace attack and the unforeseen ban on Mustafizur Rehman really scuppered their plans. However, it’s only one side of the story as it had been a litany of 360 degrees failure of Knights – starting from settling on a playing XI, lack of leaders in the batting unit as well as both their matchwinner spinners losing their mystery.

 Add to that is the inept leadership of Ajinkya Rahane, for whom things are really getting hot under the colour as he is looking directionless even after nearly half their league matches gone. His refrain of taking ‘one match at a time’ looks hollow while the Mumbai veteran, the oldest captain in the league this season, had been partially guilty in failing to push things in the post-powerplay overs.

Mathematically speaking, they face a must-win game in their seventh outing against the Royals to keep their heads above the water – and follow it up with wins in the next seven matches to eventually end with 17 points to be in with a chance to make the play-offs. True, they have pulled off such Houdini acts in the past like going on to win their second title in 2014 after losing five matches in a trot in the UAE or going on to become runners-up in 2021 after languishing at the bottom of the table, but those were eight-team affairs.

 Each KKR loss had been ushering in calls to replace captain Rahane mid-season and relieve Abhishek Nayar from head coach’s responsibilities, but it’s unlikely that a change in leadership will spark a dramatic change of fortunes. Fans have been recalling the precedent of the management substituting captain Dinesh Karthik with Eoin Morgan, then England’s ODI World Cup winning captain in the 2020 edition, but there is a lack of suitable candidate to turn things around.

 They had named Rinku Singh as vice captain with much fanfare ahead of the season, but it could be unfair to pitch him mid-season when the UP batter has not been among the runs in the current season. Meanwhile, the team is desperately hoping for Matheesha Pathirana, the sling arm paceman from Sri Lanka, to finally join the team after his rehab from injury and clearance from Cricket Sri Lanka.

An acquisition worth a princely sum of Rs 18.75 crores, Pathirana is expected to provide some gravitas to the team’s attack in the powerplay – but team sources said he is unlikely to  be in action tomorrow. ‘’He is yet to arrive in Kolkata and given the fact it’s a day game, it’s very unlikely that he will play tomorrow,’’ a KKR spokesperson said.

 Who, will, then stop the marauding duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi on Sunday afternoon? ‘’The guys who are bowling in the powerplay are inexperienced. That’s the truth,’’ remarked Rahane after Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan milked them on Friday.

Words that don’t really inspire confidence ahead of a must-win game!

Catch the match

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals

Eden Gardens (3.30 pm)