With 2 wins and 2 losses, Kolkata Knight Riders haven’t really had a poor start to the season. Except for Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians, most of the teams have been in the similar bracket. The biggest problem for KKR though has been their lack of clarity with the batting order. The last game against DC which they lost by 18 runs showed how far they were off in terms of their batting order.

For KKR right now the in form batters are Shubman Gill, Eoin Morgan and Nitish Rana. The fact that Eoin Morgan comes so late in the order after an awfully out of form captain Dinesh Karthik is way beyond comprehension. The experiment with Sunil Narine isn’t working either. KKR used Narine as an opener in India where he provided them with some good starts but again he isn’t doing much in this season for them. There needs to be a point when they need to go for more conventional batting order. Shubman Gill has been in good form but has been losing his partner way too early in every game.

Dinesh Karthik who has been in poor form can open and so could Rahul Tripati who batted at number 8 last game. Eoin Morgan needs to bat at number 4 or 5 for KKR. Him batting at 6 and coming in once the game is already beyond their reach does not make sense. Andre Russell has always been a floater in KKR order and he can continue to do so. The team management and the captain need to make sure they come up with a working batting order which will consistently give them runs. Probably opening the batting is what Dinesh Karthik needs as he hasn’t done anything down the order so far. Him opening means Nitish Rana can bat at number 3 followed by Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell and Rahul Tripati.

The above order actually makes more sense in terms of achieving more consistency in the run scoring. Rahul Tripati and Eoin Morgan scored 80 runs of just 34 balls in the game against DC, so using them so low down the order is criminal. KKR have a good team, but it does seems like they are rigid in their way of thinking and do not want to make changes which will help them to be more consistent in the tournament. Sunil Narine has done brilliantly for them at the start of the innings in the past but again this does not seem to be the season for him. It will be interesting to see if the team management will ring in the right changes in this all important game against a rejuvenated Chennai Super Kings.

My batting order:

Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripati, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik (WK & Capt), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Varun Chakravarthy