“Certainly wasn’t pretty,” Finch said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show after the game. “A lot of question marks about KKR, particularly in that run chase. Some of their tactics were very questionable. We praised the decision for Sunil Narine to go to the top of the order. It didn’t come off today [24 in 17 balls], but it was something different. At least they tried it.
“But some of the other decisions were a bit strange. And they were never in the hunt. We talked about Rahane and Raghuvanshi batting together, about how that can be such a stalling [factor]. And their partnership wasn’t bad, but there’s still no point of difference in that partnership. They don’t take the bowling on. They don’t get to a point where the opposition captain has to make some serious decisions about reshuffling their team.”
Is it likely that Narine will continue to open? As recently as IPL 2024 – which KKR won – Narine had opened the innings regularly, and scored 488 runs at a strike rate of 180.74.
“When you’ve got as much experience in that dugout, you think that they’d be at least making the right calls at the right time,” Finch said. “To Cameron Green batting at No. 6, that’s an unusual position for him. I don’t think he’s done that a huge amount in T20 cricket.”
He hasn’t. Green has batted just nine times at that number out of the 68 times he has batted in T20s. The last time was in 2024. But Green was an INR 25.20 crore buy at the auction. He is out of touch, but is dropping him even an option?
“Starting against two spinners [Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad], he only lasted one ball. But that’s his worst nightmare, walking out to bat [against spin], particularly in a run chase,” Finch said. “I don’t think you ever pick a team on price tags. That would be really ignorant to do that. Because buying at the auction is a supply and demand of a skill set that you bring. It’s not about, well, we have to play this guy because we paid this much for him. He’s playing out of position. His best numbers have been at the top of the order.”
Finch wanted KKR to try Seifert. Likely in place of Green.
“You’ve got Seifert sitting in the wings, he’s a specialist opener. Cameron Green hasn’t played a huge amount of T20 cricket [recently, because of injuries],” Finch said. “So you’ve got a guy there who brings a good skill set and really good form in Seifert, coming off a good [T20] World Cup. Who’s got the scoops, he’s got the ramps, he’s got a lot of different options.
“He is a player that you have to do multiple stages of planning for when you’re a captain coming up against someone like him, because he’s got so many different skills. So I think that there is a time when you just have to say, you know what, it hasn’t worked just yet. That’s not to say that it’s done and dusted for the tournament, but I think that it gets to a point where you go, right, we need to rejig our side and rethink about how we’re structuring it up.”
KKR’s next game on Friday, away in Ahmedabad against Gujarat Titans.
