KKR are new and rejuvenated this time. They have changed almost entirely.
But the biggest downer is they dont have the icon of the city. Their best player ever. Their icon, their pride and India's greatest captain ever. Saurav Ganguly doesnt play IPL anymore, so its bit difficult to imaging KKR getting support they have got in Eden all this years.
They've got Gautam Gambhir as their skipper, the man of the finals who snatched WORLD CUP from Lankans so much reeling them that the Lankan fans are crying that government fixed the match to win Indian support. Funny.
But Lankans aint the targets here, the focus here is on KKR.
KKR has been amongst all sorts of controversy in previous 3 IPLs. They got off to a best possible start when Baz bazzed 158 runs in the IPL opener and then it was further downhill for them. Captaincy controversy happened, FIP happened and then they dumped Ganguly.
All said and done, the owners have made an attempt to begin afresh and in that they have got some big names.
Here is the preview:
Captain : Gautam Gambhir
He led DD in IPL and half in past 2 years. They ended losers last year and semis in 2009. This time he is here for KKR and is the most expensive ever buy. He has a 100% captaincy record for India in ODIs. How shall he fare for KKR, depends to be seen.
Indian players
Gambhir, Balaji, Fuddi Pathan (Former Yusuf), Bhatia, Goswami, Iqbal Abdullah, Sangwan, Undkat, Sami Ahmed etc etc, Ladda, Bisla
Foreign Players
Haddin, Eoin Morgan, Kallis, Ryan Ten Doscheate, Pattinson, Shakib, Bret Lee
Foreign players look impressive. But Indians do not.
Gambhir, Morgan, Fuddi, Kallis, Lee and Haddin shall be the key players.
Team Composition:
Openers
1. Gambhir and Haddin shall open the batting and Haddin shall also keep the wickets.
Middle Order:
Kallis, Morgan, Fuddi , Bhatia, Doscheate shall play depending upon the opposition and they would need to pick their foren players well.
Bowling :
No Ishant, Ajantha Bow Wow Mendis, Shoaib Akhtar this time around. No Dinda too.
Lee would be a sure starter if fit. So shall be Undkat. Sangwan from DD, is at best a medium pacer.
Shakib, Pathan would be the spinners. And Kallis bhai as allrounder.
Again the foren players are too good, but the Indian stocks barring Gambhir and to an extent Fuddi Pathan aint that great. So a balanced mixup of this 2 factors and how the XI is formed shall decide how far KKR has to go this time.
