Kolkata team will enter the 15th season of the Indian T20 League as the runner ups. Talking about Kolkata’s team combination, the team has pace bowling options such as Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Rasikh Dar, Chamika Karunaratne, Tim Southee, and Umesh Yadav. However, the team lacks in death bowling options, with only Cummins a proven death over specialist.
Last year, the team’s economy rate during the death overs was 9.24 during the India’s leg of the tournament. In the UAE leg, the economy rate went down a bit (8.28). This change happened predominantly with the presence of Lockie Ferguson in the second leg. This year, Ferguson has been signed by Gujarat.
Meanwhile, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan has some tips for Kolkata skipper Shreyas Iyer on how he can keep the opposition batters in check during the final overs. Pathan said Varun Chakravarthy can be an option at the death due to his mystery elements. He added that the likes of Umesh Yadav and Shivam Mavi can be used for an over in the final overs.
“The question that needs to be asked about KKR is their death bowling and I think they can solve their puzzle by adding couple of overs of Varun Chakravarthy at the death overs. It is a big call because you have Sunil Narine, whom you can actually make him bowl just after the powerplay, in the middle overs and may be keep two overs for Varun, but also keep two overs for him in the death.
“Then I think things become much more easier. Shivam Mavi can bowl one over, Umesh Yadav can bowl one over. May be if Andre Russell is fit he can bowl two overs but if you can find somewhere for Varun to bowl at the death it will look much better than what it is right now,†he said on Star Sports show Game Plan.
