How Salt and Narine changed the game for KKR

4 months ago | 26 Views

It goes without saying that an element of surprise had already been achieved by Kolkata Knight Riders even before Phil Salt and Sunil Narine opened their batting for the first time this season.

Salt was named as Jason Roy’s replacement only in March, which meant even though analysts from other franchises had enough time to pull data on him, there was no way they could have predicted how Salt would adjust to Indian pitches. Narine partnering Salt wasn’t exactly on the cards as well, largely because he hadn’t opened in 2023 and partly because Venkatesh Iyer or Angkrish Raghuvanshi could have done the job as well.

But it has worked and how. Batting with little or no restraint, Salt and Narine have now scored 485 runs in nine innings, the most by any opening pair in this IPL, giving an unlikely head start to a team more known for their bowling experiments. This was no experiment though.

Salt is a bonafide opening batter with a strike rate of 165.97, third best—after Rinku Singh (176.23) and Suryakumar Yadav (171.55) among all full-member nation batters to have faced at least 200 balls in T20Is. A product of the new English approach to the game that takes no prisoners, Salt can also hold one end up without compromising on the scoring rate, as was evident in his unbeaten 89 in a comprehensive eight-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants earlier this month.

Narine is in a different headspace altogether. Licensed by Gautam Gambhir to go after bowlers with a predictable swinging arc, Narine remains nonplussed whether he hits a six or misses the ball completely. No mental baggage can liberate one’s performance like that. Also, a complete disregard for matchups and analysis.

"I have one role and the less I know, the better it is for me," Narine had said earlier this month. All this unconventional but effective form of opening needed was some backing. And it has paid off handsomely so far for KKR.

Monday was the fifth time this season Salt and Narine had scored 75 or more in the Powerplay, at a scoring rate of 12.43 that is just behind Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma’s tournament-topping aggregate of 14.4. That 60 out of Salt’s 68 came in those first six overs highlights the extent to which Salt dominated Delhi Capitals’ bowling, sometimes from both ends as Narine played second fiddle.

“It is high-risk at times, but it is also about putting the odds in your favour and not taking the risks you don't want to,” Salt told the broadcaster after KKR’s seven-wicket win. "That's the sort of balance that every opening batter tries to strike. Sometimes you can miss the boat a few innings in a row, but you got to keep backing yourself and sort of taking those right options."

Narine taking a backseat on Monday is an aberration to an otherwise entertaining chapter of KKR’s batting where he has returned higher strike rates than Salt in two of the most engrossing stands so far—138 against Punjab Kings and 86 against RCB. Not scoring much in one or two innings, hence, doesn’t cloud Narine’s mind as much as it would any other specialist batter. The understanding between Salt and Narine, as a result, has been almost faultless.

"We've dovetailed nicely this competition, (and) that's because if one of us gets going, then you feed the strike to that person," said Salt. "When I get going, he feeds me the strike, and vice-versa. It's good that we are on the same page like that. We normally do all the talking the day before. Sunil keeps it very simple, but he's a deep thinker of the game. With all his experience, he's really good to lean on.”

As much as the rest of KKR’s batting have Narine and Salt to thank for going in without feeling under the pump, no one should be more chuffed than Shreyas Iyer. In a comeback season fed by an unceasing frenzy over being dropped from the BCCI’s annual contracts, proving himself as batting mainstay would have been burdensome when Shreyas was already saddled with captaincy.

But with Narine and Salt consistently providing quick starts, Shreyas evidently has more time to settle in and graft wins like he did on Monday. As a captain, he couldn’t have asked for more.