Kolkata captain Dinesh Karthik believes a fluid batting line-up could prove vital to his team’s chances of success at IPL 2020.
KKR picked up their third win of this year’s tournament when dishing out defeat to Chennai Super Kings in Abu Dhabi.
The 10-run victory propelled them to third in the table following a brilliant showing from batsman Rahul Tripathi.
Tripathi was promoted to open ahead of Sunil Narine for the clash and took his opportunity to top score with 81 runs.
Captain Karthik was full of praise for Tripathi and highlighted how important having a flexible batting line-up could be for Kolkata this year.
He said: “Our batting is very fluid. I started at 3, I am batting at 7. That is the good thing.
“Over the years, fluid line-ups have done better. The way they batted at the start they did really well, but at the back end I had great faith in Sunny and Varun. That paid off for me.”
Karthik Call for Player Backing
The skipper also underlined how vital it is to support under-fire performers in the KKR squad.
Narine is a key example after being dropped down the order so that Tripathi could get his chance to shine.
The West Indies all-rounder has only made one score in double figures with the bat in four outings. He has also taken two wickets in those games.
Against CSK he batted at four but could still only manage 17 off nine balls before returning 1-31 with the ball in hand.
Karthik said the idea of taking him out of the opening slot was to try and take some of the pressure off him following a tricky start to this year's IPL tournament in the UAE.
“There are some key players. Sunil Narine is one of us. The least we can do is back him,” said the KKR captain.
“I am really proud of him as a player. We thought we will ease Sunny’s pressure a little bit and send Rahul up.”
