He has shown no signs of regression and is still among the finest bowlers in the league.
Sunil Narine has been unbelievably good since his maiden IPL season and is still going strong after so many years. He again churned out a match-winning performance against Delhi Capitals (DC) last night, snaring three wickets for 29 runs in his four-over spell to turn the game in Kolkata Knight Riders’ favour.
Talking about his greatness on ESPNcricinfo, Ambati Rayudu revealed that the Mumbai Indians (MI) had a team meeting on how to counter Narine, but the team decided to see him off. That means he was impossible to hit, and MI batters had to pull shutters against him.
“We have had team meetings on how to tackle Narine when I was with MI for quite a few years, leading up to us deciding ‘No, let’s put the shutters down, see him off. There’s no way we are getting to him’. He has been a thorn in MI’s middle order for a long time.”
Sunil Narine has always performed well against the Mumbai Indians, snaring the third-most wickets (31) at an average of 21.48 and a strike rate of 19.38 in 26 innings, including two four-wicket hauls. No wonder MI batters, including Rayudu, had to plan specifically to tackle Narine, only to succumb to his greatness in the game.
Aakash Chopra was also in awe of Sunil Narine and praised him heavily for his contributions, labelling him “the greatest cricketer” on his YouTube channel. There’s nothing that Narine hasn’t done in the league; batting, bowling, and fielding – he has excelled in all departments and is still the best performer for the Knight Riders after all these years.
“He took three wickets, which included Faf du Plessis and Tristan Stubbs’ wickets. Then they said that their last wish was to run out KL Rahul with a direct hit, and he said Granted. He did it single-handedly. What a guy. He might be the greatest cricketer in IPL history. He is unreal. He is still going strong.”
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Sunil Narine has ten wickets at an average of 25.40 and a 19.80 strike rate in nine innings, conceding only 7.69 runs per over in IPL 2025. While he hasn’t replicated last year’s heroics with the bat while opening the innings, Narine has still given good starts on most occasions by taking on bowlers in the powerplay when only fielders are on the boundary, and that’s his role as a batter.
He has shown no signs of regression and is still among the finest bowlers in the league, as reinforced by his timely performance with the ball last night. Even if his batting returns dwindle, Narine can solely play as a bowler and still remain at the top of the most valuable players’ list for the Knight Riders.
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