Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is one of the few sides who retained from making much changes in the in the team ahead of the IPL 2021. The Eoin Morgan led team dismissed only five players and included some talented players such as Harbhajan Singh, Shakib al Hasan, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Sheldon Jackson, Pawan Nagi, Vaibhav Arora and Venkatesh Iyer.
Looking back to the IPL 2020, Kolkata Knight Riders missed qualifying for the playoffs with the minimum margin. he two time winner needs to pull up their strategies to claim their third title. KKR won the trophy back in 2021 and 2014 under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir.
As the 14th edition of the tournament is just around the corner, let’s take a look towards the ideal playing 11 for KKR in IPL 2021:
Openers: Although KKR included Tim Seifert in the team, it is very unlikely for him to be a part of the playing 11 of KKR considering the overseas plyer limit rule. KKR have an option of Rahul Tripathi, who did amazingly well when he was asked to open the innings last year alongside Shubham Gill.
Tripathi and Shubham could be opted as the openers as Tripathi played 11 matches in IPL 202 and scored 230 runs whereas Shubham had a tremendous outing where he managed to score 440 runs from 14 games with three half centuries.
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Middle-order: Nitish Rana, captain Morgan and wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik could take the responsibility of holding the middle order, just like the last season. Rana scored 352 runs from 14 matches and Morgan has scored 418 runs from 14 games at a strike rate of 138.41.
Dinesh Karthik has been hoping to strike a good season as he had some bad luck with his batting in IPL 2020. The Tamil Nadu cricketer was able to score only 169 runs from 14 matches.
All-rounders: Andre Russell did not have much luck during the season season of IPL, as he struggled with injuries and appeared to be in just 10 matches where he scored 117 runs and took only 6 wickets.
As for the other all-rounder, it is likely to get filled by senior Bangladesh player Shakib Al Hasan. Shakib is another player who leaves everyone astonished with his impactful performance.
Bowlers: The fast bowling department is most likely to be handled by the Australian pace sensation Pat Cummins. Apart from Cummins, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti will also feature in the playing XI. While Kamlesh picked up five wickets from 10 games, Mavi took nine wickets in 8 matches. The spin will be handled by veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Here’s the Knight Riders’ ideal playing XI: Shubham Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russel, Shakib Al-Hasan, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Harbhajan Singh and Kamlesh Nagarkoti.
