Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has added that the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have had a poor start to their IPL 2025 campaign and he also questioned their preparation to defend their title. He slammed their batting approach during their thrashing by the Mumbai Indians (MI). Notably, KKR managed only 116 runs and MI achieved the target with eight wickets and 43 deliveries to spare as well.
While talking about KKR’s batting in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “KKR, you started with a loss, then you got a win, and have been handed a loss again. KKR, are you taiyaar? Are teams trying too hard to hit consistently? Is the ghost of 250 causing problems? It’s worth asking because there was slight help on the pitch, but was the help that much? The help wasn’t that much for you to lose wickets one after the other.”
“You feel you have the permission to run faster because of the Impact Player rule because Ramandeep was coming at No. 9. However, you aren’t able to play 20 overs despite Ramandeep coming at No. 9. If your innings gets folded up in 16 overs and you score 116 runs in total, it means you went too hard, too soon,” he shared.
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While talking about the Mumbai Indians’ bowling in Monday’s game, Aakash Chopra applauded Ashwani Kumar for delivering a potent spell and the franchise for their brilliant scouting abilities.
“This team’s fast bowling is good. It looked better when Ashwani Kumar was seen. He did extremely well in the Sher-E-Punjab T20 Cup. He was part of the Punjab Kings as well, but now he is a part of the Mumbai Indians squad. The Mumbai Indians’ scouting will have to be praised,” he said.
“I felt you could have allowed him to take five wickets. He had picked up four wickets in three overs. He would have completed a five-wicket haul if you had given him his fourth over. Just think he would have got a five-wicket haul in his first match, but you didn’t. Careers get over and you don’t get a five-wicket haul,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
