Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the runners up from IPL 2021, may not have matched quite the level of success MI and CSK have managed to achieve in this tournament over the last 15 years. Having said that, the 2-time champs have quite a legacy to uphold as the third most successful franchise of the competition.
And it won’t be any different this time around either, as the men in purple-and-gold gear up to resume yet another exciting season of cricket from next month. There’s quite a lot to analyze here, with the management opting to go for a hybrid-reboot lineup of players for this season. So in this article, we will try to make sense of the best possible playing XI KKR can start with in IPL 2021.
The top order
The explosive pair of Alex Hales and Venkatesh Iyer should in, all likelihood, lead the proceeding for the Knight Riders in the powerplay. Both Venkatesh and Hales have a penchant for batting aggressively at the top of the order, which should seal their positions as certain starters in the playing XI.
In at number 3 will be Kolkata Knight Riders’s newly acquired captain, Shreyas Iyer. Shreyas’ ability to adapt his style of play depending on the match situation lends a lot of flexibility to the KKR batting lineup. Expect him to be one of the batting mainstays of this new-look KKR team.
Backup options: Ajinkya Rahane, Ramesh Kumar, Pratham Singh
The middle-order
Nitish Rana walks in at number 4 as an integral member of Kolkata’s batting core group. Much like captain Shreyas, Rana will have to adapt his style of batting depending on the match situation; a role that he has performed fairly successfully for the Knight Riders over the last couple of seasons. His inclusion also comes in with the added option of bowling a few clutch overs of off-spin as and when required.
At numbers five and six, slot in KKR’s two most experienced overseas pros, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. Now while it might seem a bit strange to slot in two bowling all-rounders ahead of the team’s de-facto wicket-keeper, Narine and Russell’s big-hitting abilities would certainly see them getting surprise batting promotions on more than one occasions.
But should the team be in need of more stability, there is the reliable albeit untested Sheldon Jackson, who will also serve as the primary wicket-keeper of the team on most occasions.
Backup options: Sam Billings, Rinku Singh, Aman Khan, Abhijit Tomar, Mohammed Nabi
The bowling attack
Narine and Russell, as previously alluded to, obviously contribute a lot of bowling depth to the Knight Riders’ attack, and will be key members in that department. The other big names in this list are the bowlers KKR managed to get back/retain: Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, and Varun Chakravarthy.
The team does seem a bit overloaded with new-ball bowlers as opposed to gun-death bowlers, with only Russell coming to mind as the most reliable option in that area. This should allow Umesh Yadav to make it into the playing XI at the back of his vast experience of playing in the IPL. Nevertheless, expect captain Iyer to go in with some interesting bowling strategies to marshal his resources efficiently.
ALSO READ: The Strongest Playing XI Mumbai Indians can field in IPL 2022
Backup options: Rashik Salam, Ashok Sharma, Chamika Karunaratne, Tim Southee
KKR Best Playing For IPL 2022: Alex Hales, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy