My Style Of Leadership Or Coaching Was Perhaps A Little Wild - KKR Coach Brendon McCullum In IPL 2021

Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) coach Brendon McCullum said that his coaching and leadership style was probably too wild for the liking of the players. Still, he was happy that it helped the team make a huge turnaround in the recent IPL 2021 season.

The Eoin Morgan-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were at the seventh position in the IPL 2021 points table when the tournament was suspended in May while it was being played in India. This was due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in franchises’ bio-bubbles, including that of KKR, as two of their players, like Varun Chakravarthy, tested positive for the deadly virus.

However, the team made a 180-degree turnaround when the IPL 2021 was shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as they went on a big winning streak and qualified for the playoffs. Morgan-led side first beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the eliminator and then defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) in Qualifier 2 to make it into their third final of IPL history.

We Rocked In The Second Half Of The Tournament: Brendon McCullum

Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum has said that his coaching style during the IPL this year was “a little wild”. KKR reached the finals, only to lose to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who won their fourth IPL title.

“My style of leadership or coaching was perhaps a little wild. It takes a little while to really dig down and thankfully we were able to do it in the second half of the tournament and we got a bit more intent into batting and then we were able to play a bit more of an aggressive form of cricket.

“Thankfully it translated to results and we got on a bit of a roll,” McCullum told SENZ Drive on Thursday.

KKR had just two wins out of seven matches at the end of the first leg of the tournament, but in the second half of the tournament in the UAE, they won five out of their remaining league matches to make the playoffs, and then, the finals.

“We rocked in the second half of the tournament, we were kind of dead and buried (after starting with two wins and five losses). We were under a fair amount of pressure with two wins from seven games and seventh on the table out of eight. The expectations on us were pretty low,” said McCullum.

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