The old troop’s troubled Durham the most,’ Cardus, while newly joined in Sydney Morning Herald in the 1940s. Cardus would be echoed after about five decades of his demise. KKR is under pressure, working hard to deal with Kuldeep Yadav – one of their school’s ‘old troops.’ Yadav is the hurdle Shreyas Iyer and Kolkata need to cross; they have worked on strategies to comfortably have the chinaman bowler play for the last two days. However, they have remained in deep trouble in this league while facing fast bowlers – coming up with short-pitched deliveries. They are also making blueprints for playing Khalil Ahmed or Shardul Thakur.
However, the road to the play-off is not that smooth for Kolkata this year. They need to win five out of the next six matches. The play-off match will be at Eden Gardens, the home ground of Kolkata. Before presenting themselves before the Eden crowds – the KKR skipper does not want to leave a single inch of preparation, as the sources say. Before every match, they are under tough preparation.
Before the Delhi match, for tackling the chinaman bowler, a left-arm leg spinner, Rahul Sawant, was called in the net. This Mumbai cricketer also successfully leg spins beside his left-arm orthodox off-spin; Kolkata is preparing for Kuldeep by playing him. In the last match, Kuldeep picked up three precious wickets of Shreyas, Cummins, and Umesh Yadav for only thirty-five runs. As the middle order batting lineup collapsed, Kolkata was in search of ways to deal with the big turns of Yadav.
On the other hand, the direction keeps on short pitch deliveries for the pacers. Cummins and Russell are doing the same; preparation also has to have a downpour or pull the bouncers by Khalil, Shardul, or Mustafizur. Nitish Rana probably had the maximum problem while dealing with bouncers, and he was shocked while facing Ferguson’s bouncers. The maximum problem happens when a batter gets shocked and trembles in front of a pacer.
Sources say, Brendon McCullum, the KKR coach, has devoted much time to Rana. Some possible changes in the first XI might also happen in the Delhi match; Aaron Finch might return in the top order of the KKR batting lineup. He was given an extended time on the net. Even after scoring a half-century in RR, he was pushed to the reserve bench in the GT match.
Even though the KKR fans were against it, netizens also increasingly have raised questions about team formation. McCullum, the KKR coach, has backed his batters up. He says a united broil for each delivery at the forty overs can only make the difference. This Thursday night at Wankhede would answer how he has inspired the KKR batters, and he was the motivational man in 2008 – knocking a 153* for 73 deliveries. Can he infuse life to Kolkata again, in some other dimension?
Fantasy cricket league is a virtual game that allows millions of cricket buffs to create their team and score points in relation to actual performances. Kolkata will get onto the field as the underdog. The players are selected based on their past performances as well as the skills they possess. Here are some of the KKR and DC players you can select to be a part of your fantasy cricket league team:
- Andre Russell
- Sunil Narine
- Pat Cummins
