Despite an excellent cricket performance in the previous season, Kolkata finished in the bottom half of the points table, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the second consecutive time. Nonetheless, the team will strive to leave disappointment behind and start positively. Gautam Gambhir has returned as the team’s mentor, bringing fresh energy and aggression to the team. This was evident at the auction table when KKR went all-in to recruit Mitchell Starc to the team. Starc was in brilliant form during the ODI World Cup and will aim to replicate his form. He will be supported by Dushmantha Chameera and Chetan Sakariya, both excellent pace bowlers. The spin department includes Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, all of whom have significant experience in the T20 format. However, the team’s biggest strength lies in its batting. Shreyas Iyer will lead a star-studded lineup featuring Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, and Manish Pandey, while Rinku Singh and Andre Russell may well be the league’s top hitters. Finding the best combination on the field is a challenging task as KKR grapples with injuries, overseas players not in their best form, and just a couple of Indian field players who are in stagnation.
The Sunrisers have not been in their best form over the last three seasons, consistently finishing in third place. In the previous season, the Sunrisers managed to win only 4 matches and ended up at the bottom of the table. They have replaced Kane Williamson with Pat Cummins as the team’s captain, a champion from the World Cup. Cummins will not only be a key player as captain but also a leading fast bowler. He will be supported by an Indian trio comprising T. Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Umran Malik. Travis Head is another significant addition to the team as he leads the upper order. The rest of the lineup will likely include Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Rahul Tripathi, and Abhishek Sharma. The latter was the second-highest run-scorer in the last SMAT season. Heinrich Klaasen is likely to reprise his role as a hitter alongside the all-rounder Marco Jansen. The Sunrisers have enlisted Wanindu Hasaranga to lead the spin attack, but apart from him, the team doesn’t have many quality slow bowlers. With so many quality overseas players, SRH will have to leave out one or two prominent players from the lineup. We hope that Markram, Klaasen, and Cummins will start most of the matches. As a result, they will have to alternate between Head, Hasaranga, and Jansen in the final spot according to the venue requirements.
