Aakash Chopra praises KKR’s middle order and assesses the team as a whole. Kolkata Knight Riders finished seventh in IPL 2023.
Despite failing to qualify for the IPL 2023 playoffs, the two-time winners played some terrific cricket during the league. Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, and Venkatesh Iyer all hit over 400 runs this season, while Varun Chakravarthy delivered once again with the ball. Suyash Sharma, a youngster, too performed well as KKR has gradually created a strong Indian core that will serve them well in the following editions.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra stated that the squad has the ingredients to triumph in the future. Shreyas Iyer, who missed the season due to injury, is anticipated to return next season, bolstering KKR’s middle order even further. Meanwhile, Chopra stated that allowing Shubman Gill to go was a mistake made by the KKR management ahead of the IPL 2022, and that the international contingent may need to be rebooted.
“KKR as a team grew on you as the tournament progressed…of course, they didn’t qualify, but there’s a lot to like about them.” They have a strong Indian batting lineup with Nitish, Rinku, and Iyer (with Shreyas on the way). They have two good Indian spinners in Varun-Suyash. Harshit-Vaibhav have a lot of potential as well. Their overseas contingent may require a reboot…but that’s a simpler challenge to handle.
“Letting go of Gill was a mistake (as I said at the time),…but the next couple of seasons could be their years,” the 45-year-old tweeted.
Kohli and Shubman Gill were both my most valuable players: Chopra
In the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans on May 21, both Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill scored cracking centuries but RCB eventually lost by six wickets to bow out of the tournament. However, while naming his MVP of the match, Chopra picked both Kohli and Gill, who were exceptional on the night.
“This is difficult. This is one of those games where you should actually give it jointly and let us give it jointly. It doesn’t affect my health, we can do that. So I would say that Kohli and Shubman Gill were both my most valuable players. One guru and the other his disciple,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
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