Kolkata Knight Riders need to groom their bowlers for death overs: Nikhil Chopra

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have three wins in five league matches and are at second position in the points table of IPL 2022. Currently, they are featuring in their sixth league match of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The former Indian cricketer-turned commentator Nikhil Chopra gave his views on KKR’s performance in their last fixture against Delhi Capitals (DC) and the key batters of the team.

On being asked about Pat Cummins’s economy of 10.34 and picking only 12 wickets in the death overs in his IPL career, Chopra felt the Australian fast bowler needs to adapt better on the Indian pitches and is quite accustomed to hitting the deck like in Australia. He added the fact that DC managed to post a total of 200+ in the last game against a quality attack like KKR, and the team needs to find bowlers for particular situations in order to seal the playoffs spot.

He is of the view that bowlers need to be smart enough to be winning the guessing game against the batters. “If you are an overseas player, your wickets in the death overs should be more than that. As he is adapted to an Australian pitch, he is a hit-the-deck-bowler and looks to move the ball off the seam, while the pitches in India are different.”

“There are bowlers that the opposition would look to target, and the team needs to better their performances in this aspect. I think they need to assign roles to each bowler in a perfect manner,” said Chopra on Sky247.net presents ‘Not Just Cricket Show’ on CricTracker.

Somebody should speak to Nitish Rana: Nikhil Chopra

Chopra reckoned that KKR’s experienced batter Nitish Rana is trying very hard to do something out-of-the-box and needs to convert his starts into a big one in the upcoming matches. He urged the team management to discuss with Rana about mindset on the crease. He further went on to state that Andre Russell can damage the figures of any of the bowlers on his good day, and hailed his form in this season.

“Somebody just needs to speak to Nitish, you are getting the starts, what is happening. Whether he is over trying or playing more aggressively. You need to try and identify and work with that. If I talk about Russell, if it’s his day there is no competition against any bowler, instead, he competes with himself to hit sixes longer than the previous ones. It all depends on the mood in which he is batting during the match,” Chopra added.

Meanwhile, Nitish Rana has scored a fine half-century, returning to form against SRH, and helped KKR reach a competitive total after they were put in to bat first.

Check out the latest the IPL News, IPL Score, IPL points table, IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple Cap updates on CricTracker.