IPL 2015 team preview: Kolkata Knight Riders
By
Shashi Mittal
On
April 08, 2015
Batting strength
Bowling strength
Other notable players:
RN ten Doeschate,
J Botha
Robin Uthappa was the surprise package for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 7th season of IPL, and on the back of his outstanding batting performance the team captured its second IPL championship. But this batting line-up has a substantial depth, and most of it coming from the domestic Indian circuit: Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Yusuf Pathan and Gautam Gambhir. The team will continue to trouble the opposing bowlers, and expect them to pile up big totals on the board especially when batting first.
The Knight Riders had the best bowling attack among all the teams last season, and they have retained their top bowlers for this season as well. Which means that they have the best bowling attack in this season as well. The team must have heaved a big sigh of relief when Sunil Narine was cleared to play in this season, as he is clearly their ace bowler and among the topmost bowlers overall. Other than Narine, the team has two other excellent spin options in Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al Hasan. The fast bowling department will be led by Morne Morkel and Umesh Yadav, both of whom performed reasonably well in the past season.
Roster management: Shakib will miss a substantial portion of the tournament to play against Pakistan in a home series. His absence will most likely be covered by another all-rounder on the roster, ten Doeschate. The remaining three overseas slot in the team will be filled up by Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel and Chris Lynn/Jimmy Neesham.
Dark horse: Ryan ten Doeschate hasn't got much chance to play in the past couple of seasons that a player of his talent deserves. However, he might get an extended look in this season, given that Shakib will be away to honor his international commitment. This might be the chance for ten Doeschate to shine and show-off his all-round talents in the IPL.