KKR: A big Gurbaz leap, gametime woes and the Starc factor

At first glance, Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have everything going for them at the moment. Not only were they the first team to qualify but they also managed to seal the top position even before the remaining three teams in the Playoffs could be decided. But going into Qualifier 1, there are areas in their game and preparation to ponder over.

Lack of game time lately

There's a big match against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Ahmedabad but KKR would go into it without any game-time since May 11. Their last two matches of the league stage against Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders were rained out, resigning them to sort out their last-minute preparations and combinations in the nets. What this long break does to their campaign - whether it robs them of momentum or rejuvenates them - is anybody's guess but it's an unknown they could have done without.

Can Rahmanullah Gurbaz step in?

A large part of why KKR have been so successful this season is down to how they have utilized the PowerPlay upfront, and one half of that success story was Phil Salt. The opening batter scored 435 runs across 12 games at a mind-boggling strike-rate of 182, giving his team headstarts that the oppositions have often found hard to come back against.

Now that Salt is off for international duties, the onus falls on Rahmanullah Gurbaz to step in and take up that role but the worry for KKR is that their replacement keeper-batter hasn't played at all this season. There was opportunity of course for that in Guwahati but the match against RR got abandoned due to rain, robbing KKR of having a good look at Sunil Narine's new batting partner at the top.

The Starc factor...

Will he? Won't he?

Mitchell Starc's returns haven't been what KKR would have expected after that record-breaking auction bid. The left-arm seamer has only picked 12 wickets across 12 matches at an average of 33 and economy-rate of nearly 11.4. The numbers make for mediocre reading for a player of his class but one of the reasons KKR have stuck with Starc is his big-match experience. A red-hot game or two with the ball is exactly what Shreyas Iyer and Co. would be hoping for from Starc, something he's truly capable of delivering on. His season is begging for that kind of redemption.

Shreyas Iyer's quiet-ish tournament

Shreyas this season: Matches: 13, Runs: 287, Avg: 31.88, SR: 135.37, 50s/100s: 1/0

Shreyas the captain has earned a lot of praise, including from AB de Villiers who called him "wise", "smart" and "calm and composed" in the way he has led the side that's not short of senior players. But in the middle of all that, Shreyas the batter that India is so used to watching make an impact has somehow gone missing. It's not saying that he hasn't played well this season but he lags behind his fellow KKR batters in terms of intent, something KKR would love him to get right in the knockouts.

KKR batters in IPL 2024:

(With stats inputs from Deepu Narayanan)