IPL 2022: Simon Doull Answers Weighs In On Kolkata Knight Rider’s Fifth Bowler Issue

After beginning their IPL 2021 campaign with a victory in the season opener, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a narrow defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Match 6 at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. Losing by three wickets and four balls to spare, RCB had to rely on some calm batting by Dinesh Karthuk and Harshal Patel to seal a win. Chasing a target of 129 runs, RCB reached 132 for seven in 19.2 overs. During the second innings, fans and experts spotted KKR captain Shreyas Iyer’s dilemma in finding a fifth bowler. All-rounder Andre Russell, who is battling fitness issues, completed only 2.2 overs and Venkatesh Iyer bowled a solitary over. Speaking on Cricbuzz, former cricketer and commentator Simon Doull analysed the issue and also shared a solution for Iyer.

“I mean you’d like to think you will get four overs out of Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell and even a couple of round arms from Nitish Rana, you know if you had to. That’s an option and most teams are very similar. I mean there’s very few teams in this competition now that will have five out-and-out bowlers. You know one or two of which, you can bat. So that’s very difficult to find in Twenty20 cricket,” he said.

“So they have got four genuine bowlers and even Pat Cummins comes back that you know they’ve still got four very genuinely good bowlers. Chakravarthy will have more good nights than he will have bad,” he continued.

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“You can’t rely on four overs out of Russell, Iyer and Rana, then there’s something wrong I think. I know everyone’s worried when Andre Russell dives or as soon as he does something. But you can’t play the game like that if they are worried about it. Then don’t play him. You know or don’t bowl them at all. Just say to Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana, you’re going to be our fifth bowler,” he added.

KKR face Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their next match on Friday, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.