Flying high: Knight Riders, who had a season to remember, were served well by the established stars as well as players like Arora who scalped Head for a duck in the final.
| Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK

Kolkata Knight Riders has always displayed a penchant to go off the beaten track. It was among the first sides in the Indian Premier League to focus on hitting a majority of the runs through boundaries.

It has bet on mystery spinners like Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, even punted on the former’s batting as opener, kept faith in wrist spinners like Kuldeep Yadav, unearthed gems like Suyash Sharma and turned around careers like those of Rahul Tripathi.

The side also has a reputation of backing talents for long, an unheard of quality in the fickle world of T20s. Narine and Andre Russell have been at the franchise for more than a decade, and Rinku Singh since 2018. Kuldeep stayed for five years, at a time when he was far from fully formed.

KKR’s IPL-17 campaign, which culminated on Sunday with a thumping eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad and a third title, was the perfect amalgamation of all these qualities. The side just lost three matches as it played free-spirited cricket, trusted its experienced stars, mixed things up by blooding in youngsters and reaped the rewards.

KKR scored 200 or more six times this IPL and Phil Salt’s 435 runs at strike-rate of 182.01 was instrumental in this. Narine scalped 17 wickets at a splendid economy rate of 6.69 and scored 488 runs at strike-rate 180.74.

Making a mark

Russell, who had seemed a spent force last year, chipped in with 19 wickets, and speedsters Harshit Rana (19 wickets) and Vaibhav Arora (11) had breakout seasons. Even the 18-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi had his moments under the sun.

Also among KKR’s strengths was the solid Indian core. Along with Harshit and Arora, Venkatesh Iyer played a stellar role, highlighted by the two match-winning half-centuries in Qualifier 1 and the final. Varun, with 21 wickets, was only behind Harshal Patel (24) in the top wicket-takers’ list.

The tournament also highlighted Shreyas Iyer’s astute handling of his team and his own redemption arc.

Proven leader

His captaincy skills were never in doubt, for he had led Delhi Capitals to the final in 2020. But Shreyas is not in the T20 scheme of things for India, and even lost out on a central contract amidst injury set-backs and signs of mistrust between him and the cricketing establishment.

“He is pretty level-headed,” said Mitchell Starc, the Player-of-the-Match both in Qualifier 1 and the final, about Shreyas. “Pretty calm in most situations, more so when things haven’t gone our way. To be part of the group with him leading… there have been moments through the year where he has seen the game a certain way and gone with his instinct and that has paid off. He thoroughly deserves his success.”

It will be a pity that such an all-conquering group, meticulously mentored and coached by Gautam Gambhir and Chandrakant Pandit, will in all probability be dismantled before the mega auction that will take place ahead of IPL-18. But KKR’s T20 blueprint is sure to stand the test of time and shape many a future outfit.