KKR analyst and scout AR Srikkanth chooses his most satisfactory pick

With only days remaining for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 auction, it is a really busy time for performance analysts and scouts, especially with the two old teams – Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings returning and all teams being dissolved and rebuilt. Right now, the rational judgements and sometimes gut feelings of the scouts have the capacity to make or break a franchise.

KKR’s AR Srikkanth in an interview shared his experience with the two-time champion team and chooses his most satisfactory pick; or rather what could have been so. Srikkanth has been involved with the Kolkata Knight Riders as a scout since 2011 along with his day job of performance and strategies analyst.

Srikkanth’s favourite pick

When asked who his favourite pick was in all these years, he said that he had called Hardik Pandya for a KKR trial before he was picked up by the Mumbai Indians. Unfortunately, Pandya had broken his thumb and could not come to the trials. But who knows? If he had come and got picked for KKR, he might have been Srikkanth’s best, he feels.

Pandya in the IPL

Pandya went on to have a successful year with MI and that won him a position in the national side. Two of his most memorable innings as an all-rounder with MI are the blistering 21 runs with 3 huge sixes against CSK in 2015 and the last over show against RPS in 2017 hitting four sixes and one boundary. He also had a good time with the ball.

Other picks

Srikkanth told Cricbuzzz that his first pick as a scout was Ryan ten Doeschate, whom he had picked for his ability to finish games like he did for Essex. Another one of his star picks was Sunil Narine, the ‘mystery bowler’ for KKR, whom he picked after watching him bowl in the 2011 Champions League for Trinidad and Tobago.

The Knight Riders bought Narine in the 2012 auctions for $700,000 – 14 times his base price, outbidding the Mumbai Indians and went on to win the trophy that year. Narine was the Player of the tournament.

~ By Anwesha Nag