How far can Chandrakant Pandit-Nitish Rana take KKR?

In Kolkata Knight Riders' last match, Varun Chakaravarthy defended eight runs in the final over against Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the game before that, when Gujarat Titans needed 38 off 24 balls, Chakaravarthy was pummelled for three sixes. Needless to say, that over alone ended KKR’s fight.

Fortunes have swung wildly in this IPL, but KKR seem to have a knack of making their position difficult. Their first three wins before this came against the backdrop of epic 200-run chases. But so comprehensive have been some of the defeats that even a win struggles to keep KKR in the news for the right reasons.

This still isn’t their worst campaign, but Thursday’s win also didn't lift them out of the bottom three. That prompts the question: has the new coach-captain worked to the extent KKR would have desired? All new appointments tend to come with expectations. Chandrakant Pandit and Nitish Rana—this IPL’s only all-Indian and possibly the most low-profile captain-coach pair ever—are no exception.

One appointment was well thought out. The other was by accident. Even if Shreyas Iyer was available, this pairing was quite a departure from KKR’s philosophy that had in the past brought together John Buchanan and Sourav Ganguly, Trevor Bayliss and Gautam Gambhir, or Eoin Morgan and Brendon McCullum at the helm.

Pandit had only achieved domestic success. Rana, who has played just three international matches, played only three of Delhi’s seven Ranji Trophy matches last season. Pandit coached Mumbai to Ranji Trophy wins in 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2015-16, but a bigger fillip to his career came when he guided Vidarbha to back-to-back titles in 2017-18 and 2018-19 before taking Madhya Pradesh to the title last season.

With KKR owned by a Mumbai company, there was logic in it choosing a Mumbai-based coach. Pandit was also teaming up with KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, one of his proteges during his earlier Ranji Trophy stints with Mumbai. Shreyas’s transition from swashbuckling teen batter to a run machine in 2016 also happened under Pandit. With an ecosystem comprising Shardul Thakur from Mumbai, Venkatesh Iyer from the Ranji-winning Madhya Pradesh and many other domestic players familiar with Pandit's brand of coaching, it wasn’t unreasonable for the KKR thinktank to believe it could help produce something magical.

Even the foreigners seemed to get Pandit. “I love his honesty,” said Lockie Ferguson on Pandit at a recent press conference. “He gets around all the players. He knows how the team's morale is and how we are going to go about our business as a team. It’s not just win or loss but about that consistency and trying to create a culture and a team value that Chandu has brought into the team from an early stage.”

But KKR didn’t have the rub of the green. Losing Shreyas and then Shakib Al Hasan – one of the finest white-ball all-rounders ever — for the entire season were crippling blows to a team seeking middle-order stability. To add to it, KKR looked to experiment too much at times. The opening partnership was repeatedly tinkered with till Jason Roy was parachuted in as cover, Thakur and Sunil Narine were sent at No. 3 without much success, leaving Rana and Rinku Singh to do the heavy lifting when Venkatesh wasn’t scoring.

At crucial times, Andre Russell didn’t fire with the bat. Narine too was uncharacteristically leaking runs. “If you see the previous games, something needs to happen and we would lose a game from a winning point,” Thakur said after Thursday’s win. “It's not been easy with injuries, so this win was much needed.”

Wins haven’t been fluent, but the gains can’t be underestimated. None of the foreigners have been benched throughout. Switching between Venkatesh and Suyash Sharma as the impact sub has yielded good returns. Chakaravarthy is back to being the wily spinner he was while Rinku has emerged a lower-order asset irrespective of whether he chases or sets up a total. That some thought is going into delegating roles was evident during the last timeout against RCB at home when Rana spoke to Rinku and Pandit to Thakur. By the end of that innings, Thakur had hammered a 29-ball 68.

Rana too has been an honest leader — taking the ball when his bowlers leak runs, explaining some debatable decisions with a smile and not sounding apologetic about the way he bats. There can’t be a prouder moment for a captain than to see a teammate hit five sixes in a row days after claiming at a press conference that Rinku could clear the boundary at will. But KKR have also not capitalised on the small moments — losing wickets in clusters, dropping catches, missing run outs, conceding no-balls at crucial junctures and not playing aggressively enough at times at the top. Basically, KKR have always lived on the edge. Had it not been for Sunrisers’ startling capitulation on Thursday, their campaign would have been over.

The chance of making the playoff seems to have diminished. Four more attempts–three are against tournament favourites CSK, RR and LSG after they face Punjab Kings on Monday — at making the playoffs too seems very little time for a team as unpredictable as KKR. This being the first season for Pandit, KKR would want to give this arrangement some more time. But if they want to usher in change, KKR need some assuring wins, starting Monday.