IPL 2022: Kolkata Knight Riders Need Serious Re-Look At Team As Well As Selectors | Jaideep Ghosh Column

KKR never promised to be the big card for qualification. They were on the fringes in terms of team selection and then the performances began to go south rapidly.

If there has been a nightmare in IPL 2022 that can match with those of Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, it is likely to be that of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). With all the fanfare surrounding the new-look side with a new captain and all the paraphernalia, KKR made some rather mystifying choices when it came to the retentions and thereafter, their performance in IPL 2022 has been nothing short of poor, as they have lost their way badly after a promising start. One wonders why the team selection has this whole inclination towards certain players, who thereafter fail to deliver more often than not.

Let’s take the case of Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy, the promising all-rounder and the ‘mystery‘ bowler. These were the two retained by KKR, along with Andre Russell and Sunil Narine ahead of the IPL 2022 player auction.

Venkatesh Iyer was supposed to be the next all-rounder to make waves, but somehow, he has fallen off the bandwagon with some rather insipid performances. With ten innings under his belt, the left-handed batter has scored 175 runs with a best of 50 not out, coming from the early days when KKR were looking competitive. His average is a poor 19.44 while his strike rate is 110.06. All of it looks even worse, if you take out his performance in the last match against MI where he scored a quick-fire 43 off 24 balls.

This is not acceptable of a batter who was initially brought in to open the inning. Somewhere down the line, he played himself out of the XI.

The only ‘mystery’ remaining about Chakravarthy is how he managed to be in the playing XI for so long. By the time some sense prevailed on KKR, it was already too late.

Chakravarthy’s guile and variety are things of the past. He just doesn’t seem to be fit in any more. Five wickets from nine innings with a best of 1/22 and a strike rate of 37.20 is just as bad.

One wonders what went on in the KKR management over the years. They failed to deploy players like Dinesh Karthik and a now-rejuvenated Kuldeep Yadav, who reportedly had a torrid time with the Kolkata franchise.

Even after the large-scale changes in the side, KKR could not give skipper Shreyas Iyer much to fight with, and he himself too seemed to be floundering with the dual responsibility of captaincy and being the premier batter of the side.

KKR never promised to be the big card for qualification. They were on the fringes in terms of team selection and then the performances began to go south rapidly. But for them to fold so miserably has much to do with what all has been going on at the back end, and that doesn’t seem too healthy at all.

(This article was first published on india.com)