IPL 2022: Kolkata Knight Riders And Mumbai Indians Have Been Disappointing Teams For Me This Season: Kevin Pietersen
Former Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper, Kevin Pietersen recently said that Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians have been the major disappointments of this season.
He also said that after the auctions he didn’t feel like Gujarat Titans would have such a good IPL. But now he feels that they can go all the way.
Gujarat Titans, Rajasthan Royals or Dehli Capitals Can Win The Tournament: Kevin Pietersen
The former English captain backed either GT, RR or DC to go all the way.
While DC are yet to fire fully in this season, RR and GT have constantly been amongst the top 2 sides this season.
“At the moment, it looks like Gujarat Titans are going to be difficult to stop in the IPL. They are consistently finding ways to win, whether from a good, middling or bad position in games. When you have that winning mentality, it becomes very difficult to break,” said Pietersen on Betway Insider.
“I didn’t see them being at the top of the table when I first saw their squad, but they are on a roll. It reminds me of Rajasthan Royals when they won the title under Shane Warne in 2008 — they weren’t the best side on paper but everybody knew what they were doing and they had a great mentality. When you’re winning like that, the energy in the dressing room is so positive.
Look at Rashid Khan when he got them over the line against Sunrisers Hyderabad the other night. He just had this positive attitude and was able to pull it off”, he added.
Praising the Royals for their impressive performance this season, he said, “ Rajasthan are going really well, too, while I expect Delhi Capitals, with all of their experience, to make a good push for the top four. Those three teams are my favourites to win the competition.”
Kevin Pietersen seemed really disappointed with how KKR have gone about their business in the season as he said, “I was working on the game on Thursday when Kolkata Knight Riders crumbled to defeat against Delhi. I know that Mumbai Indians are having a shocker, but KKR is also in a dreadful way.
They won three of their first four games and have totally lost it since then. They’ve used 19 players so far, which is far too many. For a franchise as big as them, it’s just a horrible state of affairs.
That is a dressing room full of the opposite energy to Gujarat: negative, negative, negative. Last year, that run to the final was defined by out-of-the-box thinking. They had their analyst, Nathan Leamon, front and centre, sending signals out to the middle, and they seemed really innovative.”
Kolkata Knight Riders have to do something extraordinary now to be in contention for a playoff spot.
