Situations change fast in Indian Premier League, and no one knows it better than Kolkata Knight Riders. The side that was highly spoken of by experts in the early part of the tournament after their rollicking start, is suddenly in a state of free fall, suffering a hat-trick of defeats. They will have to rectify a lot of aspects in order to bring their campaign back on track as they face the high-flying Gujarat Titans at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai in an afternoon match on Saturday.
It might sound a bit strange, but the experienced two-time IPL champions will start as underdogs against the new entrants who are sitting pretty on the points table, having lost only one of their six matches.
With a number of their key players failing to fire, the main challenge for the KKR management is perhaps to find able replacements, which they sadly lack. Going by present form, they could replace Pat Cummins and Varun Chakravarthy. Both their frontline bowlers have not only failed to provide breakthroughs — picking up just four wickets in seven matches — but have been leaking runs in buckets too.

Kolkata’s record of one of the worst economy rates for teams at death overs in this IPL is costing them dearly. It might be time for KKR to bring back Kiwi pacer Tim Southee who had claimed five wickets in his two games and also try out leftarm spinner Anukul Roy. Sunil Narine remains the only bright spot in their bowling unit who is maintaining an economy rate of below six.
Sheldon Jackson’s poor form (18 runs in 4 games) is also harming KKR. Someone should remind coach Brendon McCullum that Baba Indrajith, who had a fabulous domestic season this time, often dons the wicketkeeper’s gloves too.
KKR bowlers will have their task cut out against a strong GT batting unit led by David Miller and Hardik Pandya who are averaging at 96.50 and 76 respectively in the tournament.