IPL 2018, KKR vs MI: 5 players to look forward to

Dinesh Karthik

There were a lot of apprehensions whether Dinesh Karthik would be the right man to captain KKR especially after Gautam Gambhir had achieved so much as a player and captain in the previous seasons for the Knights.

Things didn’t start too rosily for DK as he was questioned by all and sundry about his resource management skills, especially with the way he handled Vinay Kumar at the start of VIVO IPL 2018. But one must admit that post the initial hiccups, DK has grown in confidence as a captain and that’s carried forward in the way he’s keeping and batting too.

His unique style of captaining, where he’s more hands-on compared to some of the other captains is what stands out. In what started as a weakness, has become his biggest strength - resource management.

The way he’s handled the three spinners, using them in critical junctures of a game and usually in partnerships is refreshing to see. Also, the way he’s groomed the likes of Shivam Mavi and Shubman Gill is good to see. He hasn't shied away from throwing them into difficult situations.

Shivam Mavi after going for plenty of runs in a couple of games could have well been dropped. But not only did DK and the team management back him, but they had the confidence to hand him the ball in the crucial death overs.

Even Shubman Gill was being wasted down the order, so when Nitish Rana was injured, Gill was promoted up the order and he showed us why he’s such a talented batsmen. DK could have promoted himself, but he allowed Shubman Gill few games to get adjusted to the IPL and what's expected from him and when the right time arrived, he was pushed up the batting order.

DK as a batsman is at the peak of his abilities. It started with his series winning antics in the Nidahas Trophy against Bangladesh for India. The ease at which he’s able to immediately able to gauge the situation of the game and score runs has helped KKR a lot. He is their leading run scorer with 319 runs from 10 games at a destructive strike rate of 147.66 and at an average of 52.67.

KKR would hope the able leader and destructive batsman both show up in this crucial fixture against MI at their home ground in Kolkata.