The IPL Schedule has been out and like all teams KKR will look to win the trophy for the 3rd time. The team had an ordinary season last year will be looking to make up for it this time. Going into the Auction they released some senior players like Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla.  In the Auction they gave the fans some surprises making Pat Cummins, the Australian fast bowler the most expensive overseas player ever in the tournament, taking WC Winning Captain Eoin Morgan, Explosive English batsman Tom Banton, 48 year old Pravin Tambe(who shouldn’t have been part of the Auction Pool anyway). They also roped in Brendon McCullum, David Hussey and Kyle Mills as head coach, chief mentor, and bowling coach respecticely. Abhisekh Nayar and Omkar Salvi continues to be associated with KKR. Let’s have a look at the team combination, the players who are part of the team this time.

Openers:

Option 1: Sunil Narine and Shubman Gill. This is the most likely partnership we can get to see. Can be the combination tried out in the first match vs Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gill’s ability to bat through the innings coupled with Narine’s pinch hitting could be the right way to go for KKR. Obviously Tom Banton playing can change things a bit here.

Option 2: Shubman Gill and Tom Banton. Probably these 2 can be the brightest shining stars among all the Kolkata Knight Riders batsmen this season. Shubman needs to convinces that he’s ready to take over from Shikhar Dhawan when the latter will be unavailable due to age, form or fitness whatsoever. Banton has already invited comparisons with greats like Kevin Pitersen and this IPL will be an opportunity to give a message to the English selectors that he’s ready to do it on the big stage. Hopefully Brendon McCullum will give him some opportunities.

Option 3: Sunil Narine and Rahul Tripathi. If Brendon McCullum and his group decide to play Shubman Gill at No.3 then this can be the right combination at the top considering availability of 4 overseas players in Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins and obviously Andre Russell. Then it would be of no choice to keep Banton out of the 11 as he doesn’t have the required experience in Indian conditions.

Option 4: An all Indian combination of Rahul Tripathi and Shubman Gill. Allowing Narine to concentrate on his main skill, which is more match-breaking this option can also be tried while Banton may find himself unlucky because of 4 established overseas players ahead in the pecking order.

Middle Order

No.3: Nitish Rana

This Delhi batsman should bat at 3, considering his exploits last year at the top order where he got a total of 344 runs out of that most came batting at the top 4 and his lack of impact coming in as a finisher in the latter half of the innings might also lead him to bat at 3. He will also look to have a breakthrough season as he can be in contention for a team India callup because of the ongoing dilemma with No.6.

Shubman Gill can also bat at 3, if Tripathi is persisted with at the top but that remains the least expected decision to be taken.

Tom Banton at 3 can be an option but again there are slim chances of this to happen in reality.

No. 4: Eoin Morgan

Brendon McCullum mentioned in the press conference that he sees Eoin Morgan batting at 4 so we can get to see the English Captain there but I feel he can be more dangerous if he’s told to come at 5 and play the role of a pure finisher. He can be tried at 5 where he can look to ease the burden off Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell’s shoulders.

No. 5: Andre Russell

Andre Russell is easily the most important batsman/player altogether for KKR this season considering his last season exploits where he scored over 500 runs with a Strike Rate of 204.81 and recent exploits in the Bangladesh Premier League where he led his Rajsahi Royals to the title itself . He has become a more matured player. He can fail sometime but when he’s set and in the right frame of hitting he’s arguably the best in the World. He can be a floater keeping in mind the team’s requirements. And we all know last year he clearly wanted at 4 which was not allowed to do. So this time we may see coming 2 down. Not all the matches, but in some of them for sure.

The No. 6 batsman is almost reserved for Captain Dinesh Karthik I guess. He himself has said it again and again he sees himself finishing the match from hereon. He will be looking to make up for his ordinary show last year and show the Indian selectors they made a blunder in mixing up formats.

No.7: Sunil Narine/Siddhesh Lad/Rinku Singh

The No.7 slot will be a bit interesting considering KKR doesn’t really have someone perfect for this batting position. We can see Sunil Narine, Siddhesh Lad, Rinku Singh,Nikhil Naik, even DK coming at 7 this time. KKR still can take a player if they wish to because of the ban of Pravin Tambe. I think the new player can be taken(if) keeping this slot in mind. Perhaps someone like Shahrukh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Shams Mulani considering their hitting abilities.

Rinku Singh is a player who has done well for UP in the recent years, but hasn’t really got going in the IPL so far. He doesn’t seem suited to quick scoring also. .

Siddhesh Lad is a good Ranji Trophy batsman for Mumbai. He will have a lot of expectations this time playing for a new team, will hope to make up for the lost time in Mumbai Indians where he played only 1 match in 4 years.

Nikhil Naik has been taken again despite disappointing in Delhi last year, he might be in action considering Dinesh Karthik’s back injury which has been troubling him in the ongoing Ranji Trophy.

It’s a good batting line up, despite having released big players like Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Carlos Braithwatte before the Auction.

Now I come to the most challenging part of this team’s playing 11.

Their overseas bowlers include Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Harry Gurney, Lockie Ferguson, Chris Green and obviously Sunil Narine. And Andre Russell is an allrounder who bowled quite a bit in the BPL, for a team where he was the captain. He certainly has the confidence in himself.

But the issue is with their Indian group of bowlers. They have 4 Indian Fast bowlers in the name of Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi. The 3rd and 4th ones didn’t play the previous edition of the tournament. Nagarkoti hasn’t bowled a single ball for KKR officially still now, despite being bought over 2 years ago. We don’t really know which 1 or 2 of them will get to play the matches partnering Pat Cummins as the frontline bowler/s because Krishna the most experienced of them has an economy of 9.34 playing 10 matches taking only 4 wickets last year with a strike rate of 60.50, an average of over 94. That’s not a great sign anyway. Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti will both have plenty to prove this time. Nagarkoti finds himself out of the Rajasthan team, probably because of fitness issues. Mavi will look to impress again. Sandeep Warrier plays regularly for India A teams because of his strong performances with his state team Kerala. He will also want to showcase his skills again after impressing last year in the last few matches. Going to be interesting who gets the nod between them. Tough job for Kyle Mills, the newly appointed bowling coach.

Their main lead spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been in and out from the National team despite getting a hat trick vs the Windies in 2019. Last time he played for KKR, he went for 59 runs in 4 overs. Then he missed the last few games of the season. Wasn’t played to be fair. The team has 2 more spinners. Both from Tamil Nadu Varun Chakravathy and Manimaran Siddharth respectively. Manimaran impressed in the SMAT 2019 with a economy of 4.94, average of 7.41 and taking 12 wickets. He’s also a handy lower order batsman and an impressive fielder. Varun Chakravathy had a poor IPL debut, but impressed in the TNPL prompting KKR to bid for him both the times he was in the Auction pool. They finally secured his services this time buying for 4Cr.

Kuldeep still remains the No.1 spinner in my view while one of Varun or Manimaran Siddharth can be added on to bolster the attack in slower pitches like away games vs CSK, DC, RR.

Chris Green, a t20 specialist off spinner from Australia completes the bowling group. It remains to be seen which 3 bowlers will play most of the games apart from Pat Cummins and Sunil Narine.

KKR has enough of experienced t20 professionals, young local players. Their bowling performances will be the key for them this time considering the strong batting lineups that they will come up against in the most competitive t20 league in the World.

Hopefully Dinesh Karthik and Co. will have a season to remember.

Ravi Bishnoi was bought by the King’s 11 Punjab in the Auction held last year in Kolkata. He’s the Indian spinner who had a dream run at the recently concluded u19 WC tournament in South Africa with 17 wickets- the highest in this edition and the most by an Indian in the tournament. But Ravi is already looking forward to the time which he’ll spend with Indian and World Cricket great Anil Kumble during the upcoming IPL, as he’s the head coach of the franchise.

“I am very excited that I will get to spend time with none other than Anil Kumble Sir during the IPL and my only lookout is to pick his brain and learn as much as I can. I will look to stay around him and work on finer areas of my bowling under his guidance” he has said these smiling while speaking to the IANS.

While he took so many wickets in the tournament and being included in the Team of the Tournament, he says that his sole motive was India winning the matches when he took the field in South Africa.

“I wasn’t there for records,my aim was to win matches for my team and ultimately come back with the trophy. It was always in my mind,that every time take the field, I should contribute in a manner that we come out triumphant at the end of the match” he pointed.

Moving on, it is time for the IPL in around 45 days, Bishnoi says that it will be an impressive platform to perform while he lookes on to impress the selectors.

“The u19 world cup as well as the IPL are two very important platforms to perform for any budding cricketer. These are the tournament wherein your performance gets highlighted and the selectors take note, so I will definitely look to give it my best because at the end of the day,we all dream of playing for the Indian Team. Everytime I get an opportunity, I will look to give it my 100%.

He is also looking to improve his batting which came to India’s help during the all- important Quarter Final against Australia when the match was still in the balance if not in Australia’s favour.

“You cannot stop yourself at being just a bowler or a batsman. In today’s day and age you need to be multi dimensional and I am working on that just that as I am working on my batting and wish to turn into a handy bat as well “he signed off.

If he achieves his goals, India will be getting a genuine allrounder as he was also spotted fielding in the all important point region in the u19 WC.

But he has more challenges than it seems, as his IPL team spreads has allrounders like J. Suchith, K. Gowtham, D. Hooda, D. Nalkhande, T S Dhilon with overseas recruits like Glenn Maxwell, Chris Jordan and Jimmy Neesham. Then there is Mujeeb Ur Rehman and Murugan Ashwin as well in the same roster.

So will he get any game, it remains to be seen in the month of April onwards.

His state team Rajasthan also gives some healthy competition because of the presence of other spinners like Mahipal Lomror, Rahul Chahar. So if he manages to make his name among so many competitors, it will only improve his game, boosting his confidence and getting better with time.

He can be a handy No.8 as he also said. Hopefully he’ll be donning the blue Jersey very soon. Exciting and tough competition even in domestic teams, hallmark of a really strong Cricketing Nation.

1) Name: Akif Javed

Age: 19

Bowling style: Left arm fast medium

Role: Front line bowler

Team: Islamabad United

A bowler who can swing the ball in the power play overs, can do well in the death. Another left arm fast bowler from Pakistan. Can be a good future prospect for Pakistan Cricket. Can be a decent back up to a Shaheen Afridi in the near future with so much cricket being played nowadays.

2) Name: Ahsan Ali

Age: 26

Batting style: Right hand batsman

Role: Opening batsman

Team: Quetta Gladiators

A hard hitting opener, caught the attention of people last year, got selected in the national team recently. Played a decent innings. But still feel, he’s not that much popular among people. This can be an even more successful season for him. It will certainly help him cement his place in the National set-up at least in t20s.

3) Name : Khusdil Shah

Age: 25

Batting style: Left hand batsman

Bowling style: Left-arm orthodox spin

Role: Hard hitting middle order batsman, part time bowler

Team: Multan Sultans

Similar to Ahsan Ali in terms of getting selected for the National t20 team recently, he hasn’t got going in the matches which he got to play. Big opportunity for him to show the world what qualities he brings to the team he plays for. Has away been impressive in domestic cricket.

4) Name: Usama Mir

Age: 24

Bowling style: Leg spin

Batting style: Right hand batsman

Role: Lower order allrounder, specialist spinner

Team: Karachi Kings

Similar in terms of Shadab Khan. Can give Misbah some option if Shadab is somehow out of form, or is unavailable somehow. Misbah spoke about lack of quality leg spinners in Pakistan in a press conference only to take Usman Qadir in the team after that, who strangely hasn’t got any chance. Usama impressed in last year’s CPL. Usama might end up nowhere near the National team also.

5) Name: Haider Ali

Age: 19

Batting style: Right hand batsman

Role: Opening batsman

Team: Peshawar Zalmi

He’s a young opening batsman who has already impressed in the domestic tournaments last year, and then in the recently concluded u19 WC. It would be a lifetime opportunity for him, he’ll get to work with Hashim Amla, who’s the batting coach of the franchise. Hopefully he’ll learn a thing or two about batting in the top order in limited overs cricket against top bowlers from the great. He’s probably destined to play for the senior team for a good number of years.

Rohail Nazir, Faizan Khan, Hussain Talat, Zeeshan Ashraf, Mohammad Mohsin, Ammad Butt will also be some of the players whom I’ll look forward to how they each perform in front of their home crowds.

Please I’m sorry if I missed out on any emerging category cricketers.

After all Cricket has returned home. Asian Cricket will only be stronger with Pakistan Cricket Team doing well, and for that reason these PSL can be a short step..

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton