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The Indian Premier League 2022 proved to be a disappointing campaign for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). They secured six victories in 14 league matches and finished seventh in the league table. They messed up with their auction strategies, which cost them very badly.
Not only did KKR change their openers regularly, but they also missed a prolific wicketkeeper batter in their squad.
It wasn't all that glum for Shreyas Iyer's team, as they did manage to excel in some departments.
The KKR batters' performance and intent in the middle overs (7–15 overs) were the best in the tournament, with an overall strike rate of 137.96.
KKR's bowling performances in the powerplay overs were also very impressive, as they were second on the list of teams in terms of maximum boundary prevention. It certainly means that teams found it difficult to hit boundaries against them last year.
Ahead of the IPL 2023 auction, they traded Shardul Thakur from the Delhi Capitals, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Lockie Ferguson from the Gujarat Titans to bolster their squad. With the lowest purse in the auction, they made some smart buys in Liton Das, Vaibhav Arora, and David Wiese.
They will surely be hoping for a better showing than last season and repeat the glory of 2012 and 2014.
But they have some glaring issues that might hamper KKR's title chances.
1. Struggle against pace
With Brendon McCullum as coach last season, KKR's batting strategy was simple: attack everything and everyone. But Bazball didn’t work for the group as much as they would have wanted.
The entire batting unit struggled big-time against opposition pacers. The teams while playing against them, front-loaded their bowling attacks with fast bowlers.
Against short-pitched deliveries, KKR batters had the worst balls per dismissal of 15, with a meddling SR of 133.
However, they had a similar ball per dismissal against spin, albeit with a strong SR of 139, which was the best of all the teams.
2. Powerplay and death overs batting
Continuous changes in the opening combination did affect KKR's powerplay batting, as they struggled to score freely in that phase. Venkatesh Iyer's lack of form didn't help their cause either. He was instrumental in helping them reach the IPL finals in 2021, but was inconsistent with the bat in 2022.
An 18.7 ball per dismissal for the openers with a below-par SR of 114 showed that it was all in the middle-order batters to not only resurrect the team's innings to safety but also provide the required impetus for the innings.
They performed exceedingly well in the middle innings. But in the process, they did tend to lose so many wickets. As a result, there was not much fuel left in the tank to maximize the death overs.
3. Issues in death bowling
KKR's deadly bowling issues have been hurting them for a very long time, and last season was no different. They tried every resource and every combination they had, but didn't get the desired results.
Their death bowling economy of 11.35 is enough to exemplify the glaring problems they need to resolve this season. In that phase, they also conceded 25.5% of the boundaries, which tells you how bad they were in that phase last season.
With Lockie Ferguson back in the KKR set-up again, fans will be hoping for better performances from the team in purple and gold.
