Data Shorts: Are KKR's opening woes returning?

KKR was the worst performing side at the top of the order across two successive IPL editions in 2022 and 2023. They were the only side whose average opening partnership was below 20 and they were also the only team to score under 7.50 per over for the first wicket in this period. KKR used as many 14 different opening combinations in this period across 28 matches, five more than the next most.

KKR opening partnerships

The answer to the opening conundrum from KKR think-tank, that included former skipper Gautam Gambhir, was to pair Phil Salt with Sunil Narine - a pace hitter with a spin marauder - a tactic Gambhir successfully pulled off back in IPL 2017 when he was the skipper. Questions remained on Narine's form, who in 40 innings leading to IPL 2024 since the start of the 2023 edition of the tournament averaged 10.06 and struck at 131.

Despite his role as a low value wicket to go after the bowling early on with the field up, Narine ended the season as KKR's leading run getter hitting 488 runs at a SR of 181 and scored his maiden T20 century during the season. While his base numbers proved excellent, digging deeper it painted a different picture where luck played a significant part. Narine attacked 80.8% of the balls - the second most by any opening batter in the season behind Jake Fraser-McGurk while Salt was just marginally behind at 79.6. High risk is often attributed to a higher rate of failure but in Narine's case it was a different story. Narine had a false shot percentage of 29.7% - nearly one every three balls - the highest among the batters in top six in the tournament last year (10+ innings). However, only four false shots out of 82 from Narine ended in a dismissal that gave him a balls/dismissal ratio of 20.5 - more than thrice the tournament average of 7.8 false shots per dismissal. To bring in some perspective, Glenn Maxwell's 15 false shots resulted in five dismissals, seven dismissals from 27 for Prabhsimran Singh and eight from 44 for Ishan Kishan.

Highest false shot % in IPL 2024

Luck seems to have deserted Narine once he left the Indian shores as he averaged just 8.33 in 25 innings with a highest score of 38 across four tournaments until the start of IPL 2025.

Narine batting in T20s (until start of IPL 2025)

KKR had four batters making 300+ runs and five bowlers with 15+ wickets in their title winning run in IPL 2024 but Narine and Salt setting up the platform at the top had made everything else smoothly fall in place. KKR have largely struggled in the Powerplay in IPL 2025 with scores of 60/1, 40/0, and 41/4 across the three games with only CSK (7.44) scoring at a lower rate than their 7.83. Their opening stand did not last the first over in two of the three games. If mean reversion happens with Narine during the course of the season, KKR are in for big trouble and would quickly need to have a Plan B in place.