IPL team profile: Knights ready for quest of back-to-back crowns

The 17-year-old journey of IPL has seen only two occasions when a team has won back-to-back titles: Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. The expectations will be high from Kolkata Knight Riders to emulate their dream campaign of last year, but the job will not be easy.

 It’s true that the KKR management was proactive enough to retain the core of their title-winning squad – even at the cost of splashing a prohibitive Rs 23.75 crores for vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer – but they have incurred a few losses for no fault of theirs both at the backend and out in the middle. The loss of mentor Gautam Gambhir, alongwith two members of their support staff in Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, may prove costly as they make their way through a marathon competition.       

 No less significant is the exit of Shreyas Iyer, which had opened up a leadership vacuum – not to speak of the resurgent India batter’s ability to anchor their innings in the middle order.  The cap on retentions and RTM (right to match) meant they could not retain the explosive England opener Phil Salt, but there are enough options on top of the order in Quinton de Kock, Sunil Narine, Ramanullah Gurbaz or even captain Ajinkya Rahane himself.  

There is no dearth of firepower in the middle order with Venkatesh having the maturity of coming in at any position, followed by the likes of Rinku Singh, Andre Russell and Ramandeep Singh. However, the team’s biggest strength will be their spin twins – Narine and mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and the wily Moeen Ali can also provide valuable back-up.

The pace bowling attack, which may not have Mitchell Starc playing leader of the pace pack  like last year, is in competent hands with Anrich Nortje in forefront, tall left-arm quick Spencer Johnson a potential replacement for Starc while someone like Harshit Rana has gained in maturity after his exposure to international cricket.

If there is an area of concern, it’s about Russell – such a vital cog in the wheel for KKR over the years – not breaking down due to injury along with the South African Nortje. The later, who clocked the fastest delivery of IPL few years back in the UAE edition, had a chequered career since then and missed a number of tournaments.

There is, meanwhile, enough curiosity value about the new mentor Dwayne Bravo’s menthods. Speaking at the team’s season-opening media conference, the man with the highest number of T20 games in his portfolio said: ‘’It would be disrespectful of me to try to change some of the good things from the last season.’’

Venkatesh, meanwhile, was excited about working with Bravo. ‘’He’s been the most successful T20 player in history, so he brings a lot of experience to the table,’’ he said. ‘’Nothing can beat experience. He’s played so many games: he’s won so many games for West Indies and the franchises that he’s played for.’’

Full Squad of KKR

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Anrich Nortje, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Umran Malik.