The two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be entering the 13th edition of the cash-rich league in 2020 amid perhaps less fanfare than they’ve been used to in the past. After finishing fifth at the end of the league stage in IPL 2019, Dinesh Karthik and his men failed to qualify for the playoffs.
However, in IPL 2020, KKR will be hell-bent on making a deep run into the tournament that could see them claim their third title as they had the early wins in 2012 and 2014 under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir.
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With their training sessions ahead of IPL 2020 in full swing, here we make an attempt of analyzing the RR squad and have a look at how it shapes up for the much-awaited return of top-level cricket. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of the Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2020.
KKR – Strengths
#1 All-rounders
In Sunil Narine and Andre Russell, KKR can be termed as the team with the best all-rounders. Narine has had a memorable outing in the recently concluded CPL 2020. While Russell hasn’t yet displayed the form that he had in IPL 2019 in this year’s IPL, the big all-rounder can win games in the matter of a few overs.
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Apart from Narine and Russell, Karthik can also call upon Chris Green, even Pat Cummins, who is guaranteed to play almost all games for KKR, is handy with the bat, while Kamlesh Nagarkoti’s all-round skills have often been praised by the experts.
#2 Overseas Depth
Cummins, Russell, Narine, Green, Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton, and Lockie Ferguson – KKR have perhaps the best overseas contingent in IPL 2020. KKR’s foreign players are also highly experienced, with Morgan also England’s captain in the limited over cricket. KKR’s depth in overseas players will ensure that they can give the Indian players, who are arguably lesser in quality, extended runs of games.
KKR – Weaknesses
#1 Indian batsmen
Despite having some phenomenal overseas players, KKR still has to fill the remaining spots with Indian players, and they are lacking behind in that department. Apart from the skipper, only Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana have some degree of experience on IPL. The releases of Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa have left a huge void in their batting lineup devoid of experience and aggression, and it remains to be seen if Rana and Gill can deliver to the promise they have shown.
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Apart from them, Rinku Singh, Siddhesh Lad, Rahul Tripathi, and Nikhil Naik are the only other options, and most of them haven’t had sufficient IPL experience. With Rana uncapped and Gill has not gained much of international experience, Karthik might have to do most of the work.
#2 Spin Department
KKR has always been a team that has relied on quality spinners, as they have had talented bowlers like Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, and Kuldeep Yadav. But now, Chawla will be playing for the Chennai Super Kings, and KKR chose to replace him with Tamil Nadu mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy. Chris Green is another option, but he might not make the playing XI in the presence of other quality options.
M Siddharth is the only other Indian spinner for KKR as a backup, and he is uncapped at the IPL level. Even Kuldeep had scalped just 4 wickets in 9 IPL games last season, at an economy rate of 8.66.
KKR Squad for IPL 2020
Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Sandeep Warrier, Ali Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Siddhesh Lad (Transferred), Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, M Siddharth, Chris Green, Tom Banton, Nikhil Naik
