Bravo cautions against pressing panic button early

A day ahead of the face-off between last year's finalists - Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad - the points table is making for an interesting read. KKR, Rajasthan Royals and SRH find themselves as the bottom three teams, exactly opposite to how they finished in the league stage last season.

"We aren't the only teams after three matches in this position," KKR's newly appointed mentor Dwayne Bravo noted ahead of the clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It's true. KKR have won one in three games, exactly as many as Lucknow Super Giants, Chennai Super Kings, RR and SRH. The points table isn't saying much beyond how emphatic those losses or victories have been for the teams in the second half of the table.

These are still early days in the competition, with each of the five teams playing only three games each, but the merits of a mega-auction overhaul to retain the balance of the sides are on display, even if at the disappointment of a few.

KKR though haven't had much of a shuffle. The Playing XII is largely still intact, with Phil Salt making way for Quinton de Kock, Ajinkya Rahane replacing Shreyas Iyer and Spencer Johnson filling in for Mitchell Starc. In several ways, like-for-like. Yet, they are unable to replicate the pattern which had yielded them immense success last season.

A good reason for that is the poor form of the batters. KKR's bet on Sunil Narine's explosiveness at the top had over-delivered for them. On either side of the IPL 2024 season, his batting returns haven't been of high value, averaging 10.06 for a year before the tournament and 8.33 thereafter.

Not only are they losing more wickets in this phase, their scoring rate has also dipped from 11.25 to 7.83. It's not a new problem though. They had the worst-performing top order in IPL 2022 and 2023 as well, being the only team to average below 20 for the opening partnership and scoring under 7.50 per over for the first wicket in this period. They utilised 14 different opening combinations in this period of 28 matches, five more than the next highest.

But their batting concerns don't end there. They have struggled through every phase of their batting. In the middle overs, their scoring rate has dropped from 9.71 to 8.25 and in the death overs it has gone down drastically from 12.55 to 8.94. It is quite in contrast to SRH, who have also endured two relative batting failures this season after kickstarting their campaign with a mammoth 286. Despite losing wickets in their high-risk, high-reward strategy, they have maintained their scoring rate through the powerplay as well as the death overs, with higher boundary percentage across all phases.

With Rinku Singh and Andre Russell, two of the most destructive finishers in recent years, unable to click this season, KKR's problems have compounded in the death overs.

However, Bravo believes it's too early to press the panic button.

"In a tournament where there are 14 games, you don't judge a player who has success over the years after two games," he said. "So basically, you're judging them based on two games, because in one game, none of them got to bat. In IPL, you don't want a player or expect any player to be consistent for 14 games.

"But it's important to keep encouraging them, remind them of how great they are. They already have success in IPL. They already have success with this franchise, and it's just a matter of backing them. Rinku will win two games by himself. Russell will win two by himself. Ramandeep will contribute. Venky will come into his own. He also will contribute and win two games by himself. So there are so many match winners there. For me as a mentor, for the coach and staff, is to continue to remind these guys of the success they have already, and not judge them based on two games."

In saying so, Bravo also hopes that the batters are able to make better decisions with their shot selections, especially in games where big totals are being mounted.

"We are an aggressive batting lineup, but that's not good. What my message to my team and to the batsmen especially is that the basics of the game is still required. The smarts of the game are still required. These guys need to apply themselves a bit more, and I think they get to understand that.

"So the games that we lose, it's all learning. So that when you speak cricket, they get to understand the evidence is there, why we are failing as a batting group. Now as coaches, it's important for us to try to work on the game and simplify it a bit. And trust that cricket is also allowed in T20 as well."

Despite the existing criticism, he is hopeful that the KKR batters will be able to turn around their fortunes as well as that of their side.

"We have work on being able to be smarter in situations. Once we get that right, we'll be fine. We bat fairly deep, like most teams in IPL. So that's a key moment where we are letting ourselves down as a batting group. But these guys are all quality players. I know it's just a matter of time before they get their confidence back. And once that happens, eventually we'll start to win again."