Squandering a 200 run target and all that...

Kolkata Knight Riders Official Instagram Page (@kkriders)

So we encounter our first loss of the 2018 season. I’m always of the opinion that if losses are to come by, it’s always better to lose games at the early stages of the tournament. It gives us leeway to chop and change our side (not that we have too many options this year), so that we can make amends and peak at the right time, which is towards the business end of the tournament. Coming back to the present and looking back at the immediate past, what did our loss against Chennai teach us last night?

It’s okay for Narine to not fire at the top:  Let’s face it, when Narine makes a quick-fire thirty, we more often than not end up making a big score owing to his blazing start. But what happened yesterday goes to show that it’s okay for our pinch-hitting opener (who strikes the ball as cleanly as a top order batsman) to fail. Yes, he did smash Deepak Chahar for two big sixes in the very first over of the match, but intuition yesterday always suggested that he was going to get out sooner rather than later. So I wasn't surprised when he skied one after mistiming a Harbhajan Singh delivery in the very next over.

We’re yet to fire as a cohesive group: Yes it’s been only two games, and it takes time for a new group to gel together as one cohesive unit. While our social media handles cannot stop portraying how well we are gelling as a team off the field, the same is yet to reflect on the field. Both the games so far have been dominated by individual performances, led by Narine and Russel, followed by captain DK and Kuldeep. Also, we've exposed our 'insufficiently competent' bowling attack in both the games. 

As calm as he is, DK can make better decisions as captain: Going by both the games so far, it’s quite evident that our captain doesn’t seem to get flustered based on the proceedings on the field. It’s very easy for captains to lose their cool in a format like this, but DK has looked zen throughout all the 80 odd overs played so far. However, some of his decisions have been questionable. Clearly, getting Vinay Kumar to bowl the first and last over against RCB wasn’t the best decision. 52 hours later, Vinay Kumar came in again and bowled the first and last over of the match. We got away first time, but yesterday, it wasn't to be. It ended up costing us the match if you go to see.

It’s time to test the U-19s: At first, I thought the U-19s in our squad would get a look in only towards the middle part of the tournament, in a situation where we consolidate our position on the points table. But I think it might be a good idea to introduce one of them in the next game, just to add some fresh energy to the playing squad. I’m not suggesting that Gill, Nagarkoti or even Mavi for that matter will come and snatch the match away from their opposition in their very first game. I just think it’d be a good idea to experiment with these talented blokes at the early stage of the tournament, given that a loss or two won’t severely dent our chances of making the play-offs.  

Andre Russel is our lifeline: Last night, Russel was on a different plane. If you watched those sixes fly out of the park, you’d have figured that it wasn’t always the case of bad bowling by CSK. In fact, most of the sixes that came off Russel’s bat were shots against decent to good deliveries. It’s not easy to smash slow and low full tosses over the boundary ropes, and Russel managed to do it nonchalantly against the astute DJ Bravo. Russel is our lifeline - there are no two ways about it. If people around him fire with the bat, we can expect some more 200 plus scores this season. Let’s not forget his contribution with the ball. His fielding though has considerably slowed down.

Will SRKs attendance touch the 75 percent mark this year? This is not an observation, as much as it is a question. SRK has been low-key this time in the run up to the tournament. It’s a different issue that he’s generally been low-key for a while now. But it was good to see him present and rooting for his team at the Eden Gardens as well as at the Chepauk, all in a gap of 48 hours. Will we see a lot more of SRK this season? Like in college, will he touch the much sought-after 75 percent attendance mark? There are no proxy’s here. There’s only one SRK.