IPL 2016: 5 questions that remained unanswered from IPL 9

4) Why did Kolkata Knights Riders drop some of their key players like Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al-Hasan at the business end of the tournament?

Shakib Al Hasan wasn’t a part of the eliminator match between KKR and SRH

The two-time IPL champions, Kolkata Knight Riders had an utterly forgetful Indian Premier League campaign last year in 2015. Not being able to qualify for the playoffs in the eighth edition of the IPL, the Knight Riders led by their skipper Gautam Gambhir started their 2016 Indian Premier League campaign with a bang.

Although the ‘Men in Purple and Gold’ had lost the plot midway into the competition, they soon pulled up their socks to finish third in the league table and successfully qualify for the eliminator. Although their IPL campaign ended abruptly at the hands of the ultimate champions, Sunrisers Hyderabad, one question that will loom in the minds of the KKR fans is why some of their key players such as Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al-Hasan weren’t a part of the first eleven going into the business end of the competition.

Shakib Al-Hasan who is undoubtedly one of the top all-rounders in world cricket at the moment along with Piyush Chawla were kept sitting in the dugout in the eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad while Andre Russell had already been ruled out of the fixture due to injury. Incidentally, both the cricketers had been in fine form and had showcased their true potential for the Knight Riders in a number of IPL matches earlier this month.