Ajit Agarkar, a former Indian pace bowler has asked the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) think-tank to fix their playing XI as quickly as possible in order to avoid another embarrassing defeat in the remaining games in the ongoing IPL 2021. The Kolkata franchise lost to Rajasthan Royals by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, with South African pace bowler Chris Morris destroying the middle order, taking four wickets.
Against the Rajasthan Royals (RR), KKR managed to score only 133 for nine in their 20 overs after batting first. KKR has batsmen – Karun Nair, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Ben Cutting, Sheldon Jackson, and Tim Seifert – warming the bench as the side-eye changes in the games to follow.
Ajit Agarkar: KKR Should Look At Lockie Ferguson Even At The Expense Of Skipper Eoin Morgan
Lockie Ferguson was drafted into the KKR setup in 2019 after representing Rising Pune Supergiants in 2017 where he picked 3 scalps in 4 outings. He now has 11 wickets in 14 IPL matches. He was drafted into the KKR set up in 2019 and played just five games. In 2020 too he played 5 games and took 6 wickets that included a 3-wicket haul.
“For a batting line-up which is full of talent, full of ability, they’re just not playing well enough. You could excuse a couple of pitches in Chennai and say ‘Oh, those were tough wickets maybe and that’s why they didn’t get their rhythm ‘, but here (in Mumbai) you’ve got no excuse,” opined Ajit Agarkar, who has 288 wickets in One-day Internationals.
“Maybe this wasn’t a 200-run pitch but sure they (KKR) have enough talent to get to 160, which then almost becomes a match-winning total,” said Ajit Agarkar.
“And if you take my opinion, they should take a look at someone like Lockie Ferguson to come into the playing XI, whether it is at the expense of an Eoin Morgan or Pat Cummins or a Sunil Narine. He’s someone who’ll win you games on these pitches.”said Ajit Agarkar.
Questions have been growing among KKR fans to bring in the New Zealand tearaway bowler who has 69 ODI wickets (37 matches) and 24 T20I scalps (13 matches).
“Lockie Ferguson, when he came into that team last season in the UAE, you could see he provided something different to the bowling attack. He had a lot of raw pace and wicket-taking ability. As good as their (KKR) seamers are, I can’t see them blowing teams away. Ferguson, on his day, has that ability,” opined Ajit Agarkar.
Skipper Eoin Morgan has scored only 45 runs averaging a pathetic 9 in 5 IPL games in 2021. This is in stark contrast to IPL 2020 where he amassed 418 runs in 14 games averaging 41.8. His strike rate was also much better.
So, the probability for him to skip a few matches remains on the cards as it will be interesting to see the playing XI that Kolkata fields in the next game against Punjab Kings at Ahmedabad with only a few cricketers certain to retain the place in playing XI. Ajit Agarkar had played 27 IPL games for KKR and picked 18 scalps. The pacer Ajit Agarkar also picked 11 scalps in 15 games for Delhi in IPL.
Dale Steyn: KKR’s Strategies Haven’t Worked For Them After First Game Victory Against SRH
After shifting their base to Ahmedabad, Eoin Morgan & Co. will be desperate for a win and would like to make a couple of changes to their playing XI before facing KL Rahul’s PBKS tonight. It’s has been a difficult season for KKR as they have won just one out of five games this season and are placed at the bottom of the points table.
Asked if KKR’s decision-making was an issue and if it was affecting the players, South African fast bowler Dale Steyn said, “In the first (IPL) game they played (this season), they had some amazing strategy. Since then, some of the strategies and plans haven’t come off and now players wonder what their role is.
“With KKR, we’ve seen a lot of different kinds of strategies, a lot of different tactics and out-of-the-box thinking. And it hasn’t quite worked for them since the first game. It’s strange, some of the decisions they have been making,” said Steyn.
Dale Steyn was all for drastic changes in the team, like sending Sunil Narine to open the batting in place of a struggling Shubman Gill, or “adopting the bold strategy” of dropping Pat Cummins and bringing in Lockie Ferguson for a game or two “to see if there is any kind of difference he can make”.
KKR has a player like Gurkeerat Singh Mann in their arsenal who can revive the middle order. Since Shubman Gill hasn’t clicked yet, he can be replaced by Gurkeerat Singh Mann. The Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is likely to return and may replace Sunil Narine against PBKS.
KKR predicted XI vs PBKS: Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shakib Al Hasan, Andre Russell, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna