Kolkata Knight Riders are having one of those bizarre seasons when they are rebuilding their team in the middle of the season with a change in captaincy in Eoin Morgan for Dinesh Karthik.
Two games into the charge, the Irish cricketer has a 50 per cent success rate with the team and found a solution to KKR bowling woes by inducting pacer Lockie Ferguson in the bowling line-up, who picked three crucial wickets in quick succession in the middle-over against Sunrisers Hyderabad while defending a modest 164.
The Kiwi pacer then turned hero in the super over to take KKR to victory.
While it’s too early to say if he is the answer to KKR’s bowling woes, team’s junior pacer Shivam Mavi feels KKR have found their solution for the middle overs.
Lockie’s addition has sorted out our middle over challenges. It’s not easy for any batsman to face 150+ KMPH speed on this wicket. So yeah, our bowling looks solid at this moment,” he said.
KKR currently sitting fourth in the table with 10 points in nine games and will take on direct rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are two points ahead with the same number of games played, in Abu Dhabi.
KKR will have a point to prove against them as well as the last time in Sharjah, the Virat Kohli-led side galloped them with an 82-run win which prompted KKR to rethink their plans against RCB batsmen.
“We will need to execute our plan against the RCB batsmen properly. We have played them once already. So, we need to look back at our faults and make sure we don’t repeat them,” he added.
