Kolkata Knight Riders Eoin Morgan has had a harrowing Indian Premier League so far with the bat as he has been able to manage only 109 runs from 11 innings at an abysmal average and strike rate of 10.98 and 100.92, but for the KKR think tank it is not a matter of grave concern.
The KKR coach Brendon McCullum has thrown all his weight behind Morgan and said that the skipper will come good sooner rather than later albeit expressing the desire of having more contributions from experienced players. However, he said that the lack of runs with the bat has not affected his captaincy one bit as the KKR are still alive in the race to playoffs.
"He's one of our senior players. He's one of our international batters and in his own head, he would have loved to contribute more runs. think he's captained the side really well. But look, you want some more runs from him there's no doubt in there. You need runs from your overseas players and you particularly need in those key spots as well. I am confident he will come alright. Some guys are really going well,” McCullum said in the post-match press conference after the defeat against the Punjab Kings.
KKR’s issues don’t end with Morgan’s form as the injury to their biggest match-winner Andre Russell has come as a massive setback for them in the critical phase of the tournament. McCullum lamented that finding a perfect balance between the batting and bowling department become seriously difficult in absence of big players like Russell.
He said that the KKR had to choose between going in with strengthened batting or strengthened bowling and in the end, they went for the former.
They brought in Tim Seifert for the game against the Punjab Kings and McCullums said that the move was in line with the team’s thinking of strengthening the middle order while using the bowling credentials of Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer to cover for the absence of Russell.
"We've got several options. You make certain calls when you are a coach which you got to go on a gut feel as well. (Tim) Seifert has been doing really well when he played for TKR in CPL, he did really well in the middle order. We certainly felt we needed to strengthen the middle order a little bit. We got a good start and that meant we shuffled him behind Morgan and DK.
"When you take out Russell, it's always difficult to balance your side. We got home in Sharjah but we felt a batter short. We felt if we are able to play the extra batter, we can utilise the bowling of Venkatesh Iyer and Rana, who is a very cagey bowler. When you take one of your big players out, who happens to be an allrounder, you always have that delicate balance to try and balance your side. You have to either go with your batting strong or bowling strong. In hindsight, when we got 160-odd, it would have been nice to have another bowler."
The KKR are not out of the race to the playoffs but the last defeat against the Punjab Kings affected their standings on the points table and while being eager to win their remaining three games, they might as well have to rely on other’s good or bad performances as well to advance to the next level.