Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
Kolkata Knight Riders lost their second match on the trot in IPL 2021 after facing a defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore by 38 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The match was also KKR's last one at Chepauk this season and the team will now head to Mumbai for their next round of matches. Ahead of their next clash against CSK, head coach Brendon McCullum opined on the team's loss and suggested that they could bring in Sunil Narine for the big match against the MS Dhoni-led side.
Narine was not 100 percent fit: McCullum
Speaking after the match, McCullum said that Sunil Narine was not a hundred per cent fit but is definitely part of their plans moving forward.
"Sunil Narine stood on the rope before our first game which means he has had an injury where he was not 100 percent fit. He certainly comes into our calculations, he was touch and go for the RCB match but we opted for Shakib who has been good for us and he gives us an extra bit of batting," he said.
"After three games, the guys have played well, we have not got the results, we probably will need some fresh legs for slightly different wickets in Mumbai. We probably expect to make one or two changes in our next game, but overall I think, we have shown we have a good chance in this tournament if we tidy up," he added.
McCullum explains reason to now bowl Varun Chakravarthy after double-wicket over
The former New Zealand captain also gave an explanation to hold back Varun Chakravarthy despite a double wicket over to begin his spell. He said that the idea was to keep his overs for AB de Villiers in the lower middle order. "Yeah, look, in hindsight if we had our time again we probably would have bowled Varun Chakravarthy in the next over when Maxwell had just come out to bat. But look we were trying to save Varun’s overs for AB de Villiers as well when he came to the crease," he quoted.