Sunil Narine:
Had to include the name in the list. Next match KKR after missing out Lynn, surprised the crowd by letting Narine, their star spinner ope4n with Gambhir. Yes, you read that right! Though people who watch BBL are well aware that Narine has played well in BBL but it came out as a shock for people and also for Punjab camp at Eden. A trump card and daring decision again and the 28 yr old didn’t disappoint even! The left-hander was particularly brutal against Varun Aaron as he smashed two back to back sixes and a four before getting dismissed by the same bowler.
But by then, he had already done his job by scoring a quick-fire 37 off 18 balls. His innings consisted of four boundaries and three sixes as KKR got off to a flying start.Narine was also the pick of the bowlers for KKR, returning with figures of 1 for 19 in his four overs against KXIP. Narine coming good with the bat only adds to KKR’s batting strength and with Chris Lynn out of most of the IPL, his batting exploits will come in handy for the Kolkata-based team.
Although his fielding left a lot to be desired, Narine is a proven customer with the ball as on numerous occasions he has choked the flow of runs or given a breakthrough at a time his team needed it the most. Kings XI Punjab pacer Ishant Sharma admitted they were caught by surprise when the West Indian came in to open.
“We were quite surprised. We did not know how he would bat. We were thinking about Robin Uthappa. When you see Narine, you did not know what’s going to happen,” Sharma said at the post-match news conference.Chasing a tricky 171, KKR, who were the missing opener, Chris Lynn, gave the chance to ‘mystery spinner’ Narine atop the order and the Trinidadian blasted a whirlwind 18-ball 37 as KKR posted their highest powerplay score of 76.Though today even aginst SRH, Narine came up padded with Gambhir but couldn’t keep up with expectations.
Gambhir said “I need to start trusting Narine with the bat now. He is a quality bowler and the leader of the attack irrespective of the conditions.