Resurgent Gujarat Titans stand in way of KKR’s revival

A resurgent Gujarat Titans, boasting a power-packed bowling unit, will come in the way of Kolkata Knight Riders’ revival hopes when the two teams cross swords in the IPL here on Saturday. The home side’s misfiring campaign finally came on track after they fired in unison to snap their four-match losing streak with a convincing win at Bangalore.
In a season where their Caribbean star duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are yet to fire, the low-profile KKR side without their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer may just have found a trump card in Jason Roy. The Englishman set the tempo with a fiery half-century for the likes of Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, and David Wiese to capitalise and set a winning total of 201 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. `
Included only in their sixth match of the season, Roy has scores of 43, 61, and 56 in three matches, and KKR’s batting will once again centre around him. The win lifted KKR to seventh in the 10-team standings, but they still have a long way to go to make the playoffs.
From here on, KKR (six points) will have to win at least five out of their remaining six matches to assure themselves a playoff berth. Of the six matches, KKR play two away matches, including one in Chennai, and skipper Rana and coach Chandrakant Pandit will have their work cut out against the Pandya-led defending champions. Pandya has put out a perfect T20 template, and his ability to seal close matches has caught everyone’s eye, especially after they choked the Lucknow Super Giants while defending a paltry 135 for 6. Pandya has been a revelation as a captain since January 2022, winning 23 out of 31 matches with a victory percentage of 76.67. GT (10 points from seven matches) have been a well-oiled unit and look set for a successive playoff berth, sitting behind leaders Rajasthan Royals on net run rate with a match in hand. The Titans boast a tempting bowling line-up in India pacer Mohammad Shami, who, along with Pandya, has caused enough flutter in the powerplay.
Shami has made it look so easy with the subtle movement of his fingers around the seam at the delivery, and he will relish the challenge when he returns to his ‘home ground’. Pandya too has been cranking up speed, something he showed while dismissing his Mumbai Indians counterpart Rohit Sharma with a 144 kph delivery.
Varun Chakravarthy and rookie legspinner Suyash Sharma, who formed a winning combination against RCB, have been sharing the spin workload with veteran Narine, who has gone wicketless in five matches. The pace bowling department too does not inspire much confidence, as KKR are still searching for a perfect combination with only Umesh Yadav being the regular in all eight matches