In a season dominated by the batters, the experienced spinner has been impressive with his variations and wicket-taking ability.
Table toppers Kolkata Knight Riders have been in fine form in IPL 2024. The team has showed consistency throughout the season and has played with lot of intent. The batting is clearly their strength but a team cannot be so successful without their bowling smarts.
Although Mitchell Starc has struggled throughout the season, he did pick up 3 wickets in the powerplay during the last game. Meanwhile, other bowlers have surely stepped up on other occasions. Fast bowler Harshit Rana has been brilliant with his cutters while Vaibhav Arora has been effective with the new ball.
But the biggest postive for Knight Riders has been the form of their spinners. Both the mystery spinners have been amongst the wickets. While Sunil Narine has picked up 16 wickets in 14 matches at an average of 22, Varun Chakravarthy has 20 wickets in just 14 matches to his name at an average of 19.65. His economy rate of 8.18 is impeccable considering the batting-friendly pitches this season.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra feels that Varun Chakravarthy will have big role to play in this game since this is his home ground as well and he will know the conditions better than anyone else. Chopra also mentioned the match-up between Mitchell Starc and Travis Head will be the one to watch out for.
“Varun Chakaravarthy has the specialty that he turns the ball. He comes from Chennai and understands this ground and pitch very well. He has an excellent web of spin. Varun Chakaravarthy has been the best spinner this season. So I will focus a lot on him,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“I will focus on two fast bowlers. One is Mitchell Starc and the other is Harshit Rana. Mitchell Starc vs Travis Head – mouth-watering clash one more time. He might not take as many wickets as he took in the last match but it’s Mitchell Starc – big finals, you have got to back the guy. Harshit Rana has the slower one, bouncer, yorker, and the cricketing smarts are outstanding,” he explained.
Varun Chakravarthy is third on the list of highest wicket-takers this season and first among the spinners. Mitchell Starc produced a match-winning performance in the last game and returned figures of 3-34 in 4 overs to dismantle SRH’s strong batting line-up. He picked up the big wickets of Travis Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Shahbaz Ahmed during his opening spell.
Meanwhile, Harshit Rana has picked up 17 wickets in 10 matches so far and is the second highest wicket-taker for KKR this season.
Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad have pllayed each other twice this season and Kolkata emerged victorious on both the occasions. It is going to be a close contest between two teams with excellent batting line-ups.
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