IPL 2019 PREVIEW: The heart of the city of joy-KKR

The men in purple and gold who have won the title twice in 2012 and 2014 are desperately in search of their third title. With a revamped team formed last year, led by the veteran Wicket-keeper batsman, Dinesh Kartik, the men from the city of joy faired well in the previous season of the high-voltage tournament as they finished 3rd in the league stage and getting eliminated in the penultimate game of the season i.e the qualifier 2.

This season too, the Shahrukh Khan-owned franchise has made some smart purchases in the auction to add more options in their squad, just to maintain a better balance in their line-up.
The most prominent buys among them is that of the Carribbean all-rounder and the skipper of the Windies' T20 side, Carlos Braithwaite, who has pleasant memories at the KKR home ground, Eden Gardens, where he had hit four consecutive sixes against England in the final over of the 2016 T20 World Cup, thus winning the title for the 2nd time. Apart from that Kiwie quick, Lockie Ferguson along with Englishmen Harry Gurney and Joe Denly and South African Anrich Nortje. These new additions to the squad have added some important dimensions to the squad.

At the top there is already a lots of fire power to be provided by the likes of Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Robin Uttappa and the newly-recruited Joe Denly. Nitish Rana, skipper Dinesh Kartik, the hard-hitting Andre Russel, Carlos Braithwaite, the young sensation Subhman Gill are expected to provide a very high-level mileage in to score quick runs in the middle-order. Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav will handle the spin department of the KKR line-up as they did in the past seasons, while they will be supported by KC Cariappa who has joined this Kolkata outfit again after 2015, as a replacement of the injured Shivam Mavi. Lockie Fergusson, Prashidh Krishna, Andre Russel, Anrich Nortje will don the fast-bowling department. Overall all of these options will provide KKR with the much needed platform to lift the trophy for the third time.

Squad:
Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh,Carlos Brathwaite, Lockie Ferguson, Joe Denly, Harry Gurney, Nikhil Naik, Shrikant Mundhe, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Anrich Nortje,
KC Cariappa.

Coaching Staff:
Head coach – Jacques Kallis
Assistant coach –  Simon Katich
Bowling coach –  Omkar Salvi
Physiotherapist – Andrew Leipus
Physical trainer – Adrian Le Roux
Data and video analyst – AR Srikkanth

Photo Source: KKR official page

Writer: Avirup Roy

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