IPL 2021: McCullum hints at Narine’s comeback in KKR’s next match against CSK

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) lost their second game, on a trot, in IPL 2021 as they lost against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 38 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. This also brought an end to KKR’s outing in Chennai as they will now travel to Mumbai. The head coach Brendon McCullum opined on the team’s loss and changes they will be making in their next game.

In a surprising turn of events, thus far in the T20 extravaganza, KKR have benched Sunil Narine to make space for Shakib Al Hasan. Speaking about the same, Brendon reckoned that Narine wasn’t fit enough in the first two games. Though he was available for the game against RCB, the team decided to give Shakib a chance as the latter was in good form.

However, Shakib failed to perform against RCB as he leaked 24 runs in his two overs. In addition, he couldn’t contribute much with the bat too as he scored a 25-ball 26 when the team was chasing a mammoth total of 205 runs. Thus, McCullum hinted at the return of Narine in KKR’s next IPL game against CSK in Mumbai.

“Sunil Narine stood on the rope before our first game which means he has had an injury where he was not 100 percent fit. He certainly comes into our calculations, he was touch and go for this game against RCB but we opted for Shakib who has been good for us and he gives us an extra bit of batting.

“After three games, the guys have played well, we have not got the results, we probably will need some fresh legs for slightly different wickets in Mumbai. We probably expect to make one or two changes in our next game, but overall I think, we have shown we have a good chance in this tournament if we tidy up,” McCullum said while speaking in the post-match conference.

We were trying to save Varun’s overs for AB de Villiers: Brendon McCullum

Further in the interaction, the head coach also opined on the decision of not giving Varun Chakravarthy more than two overs in the powerplay. Bowling in the powerplay, the spinner picked Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar. Thus, many criticised KKR and captain Eoin Morgan, saying that they should have made the spinner bowl to Glenn Maxwell as well.

Detailing his opinion on the same, McCullum said, “Yeah, look, in hindsight if we had our time again we probably would have bowled Varun Chakravarthy in the next over when Maxwell had just come out to bat. But look we were trying to save Varun’s overs for AB de Villiers as well when he came to the crease. In retrospect, we should have bowled him for another over but there were many other aspects where we couldn’t just tidy up which would have given us a much better chance against a confident team like RCB.”