Data Shorts: KKR feel the pinch of a spin squeeze

KKR feel the pinch of a spin squeeze

The discussions headlined in Kolkata Knight Riders' circuit after the auction was around Venkatesh Iyer's acquisition for a mind-boggling 23.75 crore. The knock-on effect of the purchase was that KKR had to part ways with Shreyas Iyer, Phil Salt, & Mitchell Starc while they managed to gather the rest of their class of 2024 through retentions and buybacks. Losing Shreyas meant they lost one-half of their strike force against spin in the middle phase from their victorious 2024 campaign.

In the middle overs last season, Sunil Narine smashed at 178 against spin while Shreyas struck at 144 at an average of 114. Ajinkya Rahane and Quinton de Kock, the respective replacements for Shreyas and Salt, both have an affinity to pace over spin and this meant it was imperative for KKR to have Narine bat as deep into the middle overs with pacer hitters around him.

KKR batters: pace vs spin in IPL 2023-24

Narine averaged 8.33 and 10.41 in 12 months either side of his MVP performance in IPL 2024 and was on five off 11 balls, which included a streaky top-edged boundary. When Krunal Pandya was introduced in the fifth over, Narine promptly lofted him over deep mid-wicket off the first ball and scored 12 off the first three balls he faced from Suyash managing 19 runs off the five balls he faced from RCB spinners. Narine's presence in the middle meant Patidar couldn't turn back to Krunal and instead front-load Rasikh Salam's overs.

But once Rasikh got the better of Narine off the final ball of 10th over – a point at which KKR was on 107/2 – Krunal returned the next over. After conceding 15 runs off his first over, Krunal finished the day on 3/29 getting a wicket in each of his three overs. Despite conceding 41 off his three wicketless overs, Patidar entrusted Suyash Sharma's leg breaks to bowl the 16th over with Andre Russell in the middle. A tossed-up wrong one at 85.4 kph breached Russell's hoick across the line and his skipper rewarded Suyash with a short leg to the incoming Ramandeep Singh. Patidar bowled seven straight overs of spin bowling Liam Livingstone in the 17th over at the expense of Yash Dayal or Rasikh not completing their quota of four overs. The seven-over sequence reduced KKR from 107/2 at the halfway mark to 155/6 by the 17th over as the home team could only muster 67/6 off their back half. Narine aside, the rest of KKR managed 69/4 against spin at a strike rate of 126.

If RCB, who had one of the weakest spin attacks on paper, could keep KKR batters in check as they did today, bigger challenges await KKR middle order in the season ahead and the management could think of pushing Narine down to the middle order to counter this challenge.