More than a week ago, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) became the first team to qualify for IPL 2024 playoffs. They still had two games left in the league stage but nine wins in 12 fixtures gave them enough points to top the table and have the ‘Q’ against their name.
There were celebrations in the owner’s box and the Eden Gardens stands but all eyes were towards the dugout where team mentor Gautam Gambhir was exchanging hugs with the rest of his coaching support staff. He did break into a light smile while congratulating head coach Chandrakant Pandit but that was it.
The game face was still on as Gambhir congratulated rest of the team on securing the playoffs berth. Even if the celebrations didn’t suggest, Gambhir must have certainly felt good with the qualification on his return to the KKR dugout after a long gap. It was instant impact as he helped the side make the last-four stage after languishing in bottom half (7th position) of the table for two consecutive seasons.
Mentor Gambhir did not wave a magic wand in the KKR change room to make things happen again, but had a well-thought out plan to put the team back on the winning track. Much like he has done with teams he has led/mentored in the past, the left-hander defined roles for each player in the squad and gave them the required confidence and freedom to excel.
Waking the giants up
For starters, he woke up T20 giants Sunil Narine and Andre Russell from a hibernation of sorts. Narine was back to opening – something which Gambhir made him do during his days as KKR skipper – and Russell was getting enough deliveries to face, and bowl. The two are having a brilliant season with both bat and ball, and their success has helped the team become a force to reckon with.
With 15 wickets and 461 runs in just 12 fixtures, Narine is currently the leading all-rounder in the cash-rich league and has scored more runs than the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Suryakumar Yadav.
As far as Russell is concerned, he is striking the ball at over 180 and is making useful contributions with the ball too.
In 12 games, he has bowled 25.2 overs and picked 15 wickets at an average of 17.40. More than him bowling, the timing of his bowling, that echoes the role clarity in the KKR camp. 59 percent of Russell’s overs have come in the middle phase while 41 percent during the last five overs of the innings. He is yet to bowl a single delivery inside the powerplay and that is going to remain the case during the knockouts too.
Narine and Russell blowing hot and cold in last two editions wasn’t an ideal situation for the two-time champions, and Gambhir knew it was something which needed immediate attention. While attending them, Gambhir also fixed KKR’s opening problem.
In the last two editions, they had used 14 different pairs at top of the order but none worked for them as the openers averaged only 15.7 and 22.5 in 2022 and 2023 seasons respectively.
That average shot up to 46.58 in 2024 as both Narine and Phil Salt have been very consistent and the side will only try a new combination in the Qualifier 1 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad because Salt flew back home for national duty.
‘Little contributions’ and Ramandeep
In a chat with R Ashwin on his YouTube show ‘Kutti Stories with Ash’, Gambhir spoke at length about the little contributions that matter the most. He remembered Manoj Tiwary’s two boundaries in 2012, Rajat Bhatia’s tidy spells and reiterated that the big performances only get you headlines. “It’s the little contributions which win you matches,” he insisted.
Those little contributions have come consistently from Ramandeep Singh’s bat this season as the right-hander has faced just 62 balls in 12 games but he has a very healthy strike-rate of 201.61 and an average of 31.25.
The 27-year-old has mostly come towards the fag end of the innings and has managed to swing momentum in KKR’s favour with some meaty hits. He has scored only 125 runs but these “little contributions” have already made a huge impact for the Shreyas Iyer-led unit.
Can they make it 3/3?
The last time KKR finished the group stages in the top two, they went on to win the title – both in 2012 and 2014, under Gambhir’s captaincy. Even in the playoffs stage, KKR have a win percentage of 62 and have won eight out of their 13 games.
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The last four times they made the playoffs, KKR lost an Eliminator (2016), made it to Qualifier 2 twice (2017 and 2018) and ended runners-up in the 2021 edition. May 21 has the entire spotlight for now, but KKR have done well to earn themselves two shots at securing final berth and the opposition will have to be on top of their game to get better of this team.
Gambhir will again be in the dugout with his intense game face on but he would be least bothered about what people would be thinking or saying about his expressions.
“Sometimes when people talk about – he doesn’t smile. He doesn’t love. He’s always intense. He’s always grumpy. He’s always walking on the edge. He’s old. He always has his game face on. People don’t come to watch me smile. Unfortunately, people come to watch me win. That’s the kind of profession we guys are in. I can’t help it,” Gambhir had said on Ashwin’s show.
For him, the obsession to win is paramount, and it will be no different in the big game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
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