Like many successful Indian cricketers, Ajinkya Rahane looks to be living in a bubble these days. They use the “bubble” as a barrier to block out any “outside noise,” which in a different context would be legitimate criticism that they don’t want to hear.
There have been other occasions where teams have had terrible IPL campaign starts, but no team has ever appeared so disorganized, a skipper so inexperienced, and a batting strategy as outdated as the Indian Premier League’s inception.
Young Turks like Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and now Vaibhav Sooryavanshi have completely transformed the syntax of Twenty20 batting. Not to be overlooked are Priyansh Aryas and Ayush Mhatres.
Rahane’s batting strategy is founded on muscle memory developed over the past 20 years, and at 37, he is simply unable to play the catch-up game.
There are significant concerns about how Rahane, who shouldn’t be included in the squad as a batter, could continue to be this team’s captain.
Rahane has only hit seven sixes in five games, but what’s even more puzzling is that he has only hit eight boundaries. An average of three boundaries (fours or sixes) each game is unacceptable for a top-order hitter who is either starting or coming in at number three.
The man, a respected former Test captain who has played in more than 80 red ball games for the nation, is only looking worse with a strike rate of less than 150, which may have been adequate in pre-Covid days.
Rahane is merely damaging his reputation, but serving as KKR’s “TINA” (There Is No Alternative) is his greatest source of support. The last thing KKR management wants to deal with is another player struggling with his own form, especially because his successor Rinku Singh is in such bad form.
Rovman Powell, who has captained the West Indies in 37 T20I matches and three ODIs, is the only other player in the entire lineup with some leadership experience. Even Powell appears to be a superior option right now, despite his poor T20I win percentage of 51.
The KKR team has never had significant beginnings in most Powerplays like the one that occurred at the Chepauk on Tuesday, with both Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi, the protégé of head coach Abhishek Nayar and current KKR top-scorer with 182 runs at SR of 155, batting in the top four.
CEO Venky Mysore and all of the senior executives in KKR team management, including Nayar, bear some of the blame for creating a team for which there are no appropriate alternatives.
They don’t have any strong Indian reserves who can simply step up from game one, even if Rahane is benched. Tejasvi Dahiya, a teenage player from Delhi, has a lot of natural hitting potential.
Overall, KKR’s situation appears grave, and with Rahane leading the team, it appears that the campaign can only go south.
