Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Knight Riders banking on Gambhir success



Despite having one of the largest fan bases in the IPL and a passionate owner in Shahrukh Khan the Kolkata Knight Riders have failed to make an impact during the previous three IPL tournaments.

Khan's answer to his team's failings was to make Indian international Gautam Gambhir the most expensive cricketer in the history of the IPL when the Knight Riders paid $2.4 million to secure Gambhir during January's Player Auction.

The Knight Riders also dumped previous skipper Sourav Ganguly and most of his under performing teammates and revamped the squad signing stars like Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate and Brad Haddin.

With a big hitting top order the Knight Riders will be confident of out gunning their opponents but a weekend bowling attack might be the teams down full when the pressure is own.

With Lee and Lakshmipathy Balaji as the team's main threats the pressure will be on Kallis, Yusuf Pathan and ten Doeschate to step up to the mark with an older ball during the middle overs.

Should an injury prone Lee fail to make it through the entire tournament the Knight Riders could find themselves with an inexperienced attack with a place in the knock out stages of the tournament on the line.

Key Player - New skipper Gautam Gambhir will shine with the bat for the Knight Riders giving his new team a solid opening batsman capable of remaining at the crease throughout a game.

Gambhir scored over 1,000 runs for the Delhi DareDevils during the previous three tournaments and Shahrukh Khan will hope this impressive form continues in the Gold and Black of the Knight Riders.

Source: http://www.cricket20.com/news/article.asp?NewsID=6050

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