Mitchell Starc coming into the team boosted confidence of youngsters: Bharat Arun. Arun remarked, “Starc has been one of the best bowlers in world cricket.”
After a ten-year wait, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) finally lifted the coveted title in the 17th Indian Premier League (IPL) thanks to their incredible run. When it mattered most in the final game, a disciplined bowling unit delivered.
The bowlers for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowled the opposition out for just 113 in the summit match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), setting up an easy chase as they won by eight wickets. Bharat Arun, the bowling coach for Kolkata, gave the team high marks.
The club had a few of bad seasons, missing the playoffs in 2022 and 2023. As the former Indian bowling coach pointed out. This prompted a great deal of reflection and a targeted strategy to pinpoint areas in need of development.
“It has been pretty tough the last two years, we didn’t qualify and there has been introspection and we worked on areas that needed to be worked on,” Arun was cited by Cricbuzz as saying.
To improve their bowling, for example, they paid a staggering INR 24.75 crore to sign Australian pace sensation Mitchell Starc. The youth in the KKR ranks experienced a significant boost in confidence with the arrival of Starc. It fell to the tall left-hander to lead the attack with the bowl. Despite a slow start to the season, the Australian finished with 17 wickets and played well toward the end.
“The addition of Mitchell Starc to the team increased the other young players’ confidence. He is among the best bowlers in the world of cricket and has experience in similar circumstances. “Once he figured out how to read the conditions in India, it was all magic,” he continued.
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Bowling in tandem has worked exceptionally for us: Bharat Arun
In the championship match versus SRH, Starc’s influence was clear as he took two important wickets during the powerplay, including the highly valued scalp of Abhishek Sharma and then a key wicket of Rahul Tripathi. Many commentators believe Sharma’s dismissal in particular to be the ball of the season.
The youthful Harshit Rana, who concluded as KKR’s third-leading wicket-taker with 19 wickets, was also commended by the 61-year-old. Rana finished with statistics of 2/24 on the day of the final, taking important wickets against Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
“He has been outstanding and it’s about the bowler understanding what his strengths are and when he does, it comes out beautifully on the ground,” Arun continued.
The bowling coach didn’t forget to laud the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. He mentioned that they were exceptional throughout the tournament, as they picked 17 and 19 wickets, respectively.
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