Why are Kolkata Knight Riders struggling to defend totals? 

Over the past IPL seasons, the Kolkata Knight Riders have been one of the tournament’s best bowling attacks. The bowling attack had everything, starting from pace to classical spin and then topped off with the ‘mystery spin’ of Sunil Narine. The Trinidadian is still there and the spin attack is still extremely potent but KKR’s bowling seems to have lost the bite that it had in earlier seasons.

In their previous game, their attack was blown away by the Kings XI Punjab openers. They have lost 3 games so far and all of them came about while defending a score. Against KXIP, they failed to defend 191 while the Chennai Super Kings chased down 202 against them in a canter.

The other loss was in a low-scoring game but a bowling attack with more teeth could have made it interesting. It must be said that chasing teams are nowadays more successful but KKR have found it laughably difficult to defend big scores and it seems they have a problem. Here are some of the reasons why they are failing to defend scores.

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#3 Local fast bowling reserves are a bit bare

Vinay Kumar was extremely poor in the first two games

In the past, KKR had excellent Indian fast bowlers as a part of their attack and that was a huge factor in their bowling attack being such a well-rounded one. Players like Umesh Yadav and Ankit Rajpoot were part of their bowling unit last season.

However, none of those two bowlers was retained. Instead, they went for Vinay Kumar, who was extremely poor in the first two games and in the CSK game, his disastrous last over cost them the game. On the other hand, among the two Under-19 stars, Kamlesh Nagarkotti’s tournament ended without playing a game due to an injury. Shivam Mavi has stepped into the attack and despite bowling really fast, he is far from the finished material yet. This is something that has hampered KKR throughout the tournament.

#2 Overdependence on Sunil Narine

As soon as Sunil Narine goes off, the runs start to flow once again

One thing that is often noticed in KKR’s bowling efforts when they defend a score is that they seem to exert some sort of control when Sunil Narine is in operation but as soon as he goes off, the runs start to flow once again. For instance, when CSK chased down 202 earlier in the tournament, the right arm spinner went for only 17 runs in 4 overs and picked up the crucial wicket of Raina.

However, the rest of the bowlers could not defend 186 in 16 overs. The same happened against Sunrisers Hyderabad when defending a paltry total of 138, Narine returned figures of 2-17 in his quota but the others could not quite give him the support. However, against KXIP, even Narine was taken to the cleaners and KKR sank quickly at home. All teams depend on their top bowlers but KKR’s dependency is perhaps damaging.

#1 Mitchell Starc's injury has hurt them big time

Mitchell Starc is a monster in limited overs

KKR have had a history of having at least one express quick bowler in their ranks for years. Bowlers like Shane Bond, Brett Lee and Morne Morkel were part of the set up in the past. Last year it was Trent Boult and at the IPL auction this year, KKR went for one of the best fast bowlers in the world in Mitchell Starc. The Australian quick is a monster in limited overs cricket and his pace, bounce, accuracy and inch-perfect yorkers often make him one of the most difficult bowlers to hit against. They paid Rs. 9.4 crores for him but the player did not even come to India due to an injury sustained during the Test series in South Africa. This setback has proven to be a crippling one.

His replacement Tom Curran may have done well in the recent past and may have a reputation for being an excellent fast bowler but he hasn’t impressed yet. Mitchell Johnson, on the other hand, has only played two games and it seems his fitness may be an issue. Curran has gone for an incredible 11.86 runs an over in 4 games so far and it is simply not good enough. The lack of fast bowling firepower is something that will haunt them throughout the tournament.