West Indies international Sunil Narine brought the best out of himself as an attacking opener during the Indian Premier League playing for Kolkata Knight Riders.
When he opened the innings for KKR, the opposition bowlers went easy on him and paid the price. The southpaw literally tore the opposition’s bowlers apart with sixes and fours.
His counter-attacking batting display has often put the Knight Riders in a comfortable position. When it comes to chasing, he scored runs at the rate of knots and thus he made the equation a bit more simpler.
For the unversed, Narine took charge as the opener’s role for the first time in Australia’s premier T20 competition, Big Bash League.
The mystery spinner had represented Melbourne Renegades alongside Aaron Finch. It was at that time he opened the innings and impressed the cricket fraternity with fabulous hitting skills.
Quite interestingly, Gautam Gambhir, the then skipper of KKR gave a similar role to Narine in IPL 2017 season. The West Indies international cherished the role.
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Gautam Gambhir asked me to open the innings for KKR, says Sunil Narine
Narine further added that it was Gambhir who asked him to open the innings. Gambhir wanted the southpaw to get the team off to a blistering start.
Narine took the new role quite seriously and the decision to use Narine as an opener proved to be a masterstroke. He literally came down the track and mounted pressure on the bowlers by playing shots.
“Gautam Gambhir asked me to open. He wanted me to get the team off to a fast start, it didn’t matter if I lost my wicket early,” Narine was quoted as saying in the latest edition of Cricket Monthly.
Narine further added that no team could plan properly to get the better of him. Moreover, the opposition didn’t take him that seriously. As a result, Narine capitalized the chances to better effect.
“Nobody could plan too much for me as I was still new to the role, the opposition didn’t take me that seriously, and I went from strength to strength,” he added. Narine has played as many as 148 games in the Indian Premier League.
The 34-year-old has taken 152 wickets to his name. Besides that, he has slammed 4 half-centuries to his name. Moreover, he maintained a spectacular strike-rate of 162.7. He registered his personal best score of 75. He has taken seven four-wicket hauls and 1 five-wicket haul to his name in the IPL.
