IPL 2022: KKR Coach Brendon McCullum Rues Continued PowerPlay Struggles

To locate perhaps KKR’s greatest pain in the neck in IPL 2022, you’d need to travel as far as possible back to March 26 – the premiere night of the season. KKR had a newcomer in Ajinkya Rahane opening with one of their retentions, Venkatesh Iyer, and putting on 42 runs for the opening wicket.

10 games since, both have lost their place and none of the other four different opening duos have figured out how to improve.

Partnerships at the top aren’t the main stressing part of KKR’s sad beginnings. Before Saturday, they’d lost 20 wickets in the Powerplay – most by a team this season. Toward the finish of Saturday, that count went up to 23, delivering an early finish to a lofty chase at a ground where they’d never lost in seven trips.

Powerplay Struggles Have Been Frustrating For KKR: Brendon McCullum

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to put together a decent enough partnership at the top of the order,” McCullum said after Saturday night’s loss, yet those words would appropriately portray KKR’s issue in any of the past six matches – five of which finished in routs for them.

“We struggled in the PowerPlay which has been a frustration for us throughout the season. We’ve been good throughout the middle phase and not too bad at the death, but in the PowerPlay, we’ve been a little unstuck and we’ve to find a method to not lose many wickets and also throw a few punches and get a few boundaries,” McCullum opined.

The urgent need to toss early punches even returned KKR to a previous plan that they’d moved past last season – of pushing Sunil Narine up as the PowerPlay biffer. Indeed, even that didn’t yield the ideal outcomes.

“At the moment we’re stuck in between and it’s not really working and our opponents are taking advantage of that,” McCullum added.

Frightfully, before Saturday’s match, KKR’s dilemma this season reflected their circumstance at this stage last year – with 6 losses in 10 trips. However, 2021 came to a turnaround starting here, fueled enormous by a young opener who was offered an open door at the top when the competition moved to the UAE. He took off immediately and KKR rode the wave the whole way to the last.

Its Disappointing For Someone Who Represented India In The Last 7 Or 8 Months: Brendon McCullum On KKR’s Retention

The incongruity is maybe not lost on Brendon McCullum that similar hitter who made his India debut and got held by KKR under a year since his UAE stretch, has now lost his spot after a progression of disappointing exhibitions.

“He [Venkatesh Iyer] didn’t get as many runs as he would’ve liked and we got forced into a situation where we had to look at some other options. That’s obviously disappointing for someone who’s represented India in the last 7 or 8 months on the back of what was a very good IPL last time in the UAE.

Venkatesh, who finished IPL 2021 with 370 runs in 10 innings with 4 fifties, has only one score of 50 this season and a next-best score of 18 in his other eight innings. He has naturally been consigned to the bench, with KKR taking a gander at various batting choices to spruce up the methodology, yet in pointlessness.

McCullum figured there was as yet a way back for the left-handed opener with three must-win games coming up in their journey to stay alive in the playoffs race for as much time as possible.

“So it’s a little bit frustrating for him, I know he’s working hard in the nets as well and trying to get his spot back and that will certainly be a consideration. In a short tournament, you have to be able to use the other guys as well. That’s what we’ve unfortunately had to do with Venkatesh but he’s certainly not out of reckoning for the games to come,” McCullum said.

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