IPL-7 on it’s way, taking a look at Kolkata Knight Riders

The Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) better known to be for bollywood star Shah rukh Khan’s team as the name suggests comes from the city which celebrates its cricket like a festival Kolkata. The crowd just supports their team even in the worst of forms. KKR saw revival in their performance since the arrival of Gautam Gambhir as their skipper who has taken the team to a different height all together.

Past performances in IPL:KKR had a poor IPL seasons in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the 2011 IPL was the year of rise as they made it to the playoffs and a final appearance and win in 2012 their best IPL season. But, could not maintain on it and ended their 2013 journey in the league stage itself unable to advance further.(also read Top 10 players to watch out for in IPL7)

Season | Place

2008 – Group Stage

2009 – Group Stage

2010 – Group Stage

2011 – Playoffs

2012 – Champions

2013 – Group Stage

Strengths:KKR’s strength is their bowling led by Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav and Gautham Gambhir with the bat who having more than a point to prove in this IPL. All-round abilities of Jacques Kallis, Shakib al Hasan and Yusuf Pathan.

Weaknesses:Batting inconsistency has hurt KKR the most, good bowling could rarely be backed by strong batting performance and is where they lack behind other teams. They have had big players too but could not deliver. KKR need a settled batting line up without that it will be tough for them to survive on UAE and sub continent wickets.(also read SRH team preview)

Squad:

Batsmen:Robin Uthappa ,Manish Pandey ,Chris Lynn ,Suryakumar Yadav ,Gautam Gambhir Jacques Kallis

All-Rounders: Jacques Kallis ,Yusuf Pathan ,Shakib Al Hasan ,Ryan ten Doeschate ,Andre Russell ,Sayan Sekhar Mondal

Wicketkeepers: Manvinder Bisla ,Debabrata Das

Bowlers:Piyush Chawla ,R Vinay Kumar ,Morne Morkel ,Umesh Yadav ,Pat Cummins ,Kuldeep Yadav ,Veer Pratap Singh

X Factors:

Gautam Gambhir: Gautam Gambhir’s inclusion in the KKR team is the prime reason for their change in fortunes. He brought in the impetus that added push, aggression which was missing in the team. Gambhir lead KKR from the front to get them to their first ever IPL title. In the 2013 season playing 16 matches he scored 406 runs and in the whole of IPL has 2471 runs in 88 matches at an average of 32 which also includes 20 50+ scores .

Yusuf Pathan:An aggressive batsman and useful bowler like Yusuf is any day an asset to the team he plays for. Yusuf on his day can single handedly pull off un-believable games with his high held bat. The elder Pathan brother has 1820 runs from 91 games with a strike rate of 147. His cameos in the end of the innings give the team a right finish to the innings and are the X factor for his team.

Sunil Narine: The mysterious tweaker from West Indies has his 2013 Season Statistics to speak for him 16 matches 22 wickets and 46 wickets in 31 IPL career matches with a five wicket haul is a tremendous achievement for a spinner in T20. Narine is never easy to pick for any batsmen the deliveries just pass by untraced. This creates doubt in the mind of the batsmen and is where his effectiveness lies.

Jacques Kallis: Jacque is an opening batsmen, innings stabilizer, anchor, finisher, opening bowler, power play bowler, death over bowler. A real x-factor throughout his career for South Africa and now for KKR in the IPL Kallis scored 311 runs with 16 wickets in the 2013 IPL. In his complete career he has played 90 matches scored 2276 runs and 61 wickets can never be equaled.

Cricket Tracker Says:KKR depend too much on their bowlers to win them the matches. A bowling unit needs equal and more support from the batsmen as T20 is the batsmen’s game, conditions would to favor the batters. Their bowlers are capable of restricting any batting line up to a below par score but, will the batsmen deliver? If KKR have an answer to this it would give them a better chance a stronger case to make. They need to find the right mix of players to bring right balance to the squad and win them critical moments which affect the final outcome.(also read RCB team preview)