Indian's legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin criticised Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane's captaincy after he opted to bat first against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their home clash at Eden Gardens. The weather forecast showed that rain is set to interrupt the game. Most of the times, captain winning the toss when rain threat is imminent, opts to field first but Rahane did the opposite which caught Ashwin's eye.
“When you know it’s going to be a rain-affected game, with an inexperienced bowling attack at your disposal, you choose to bat first. Interesting thought process," Ashwin wrote on X.
Ashwin referred to the inexperienced bowling attack featuring Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Sharma, Kartik Tyagi, Anukul Roy and Blessing Muzarabani. Ramandeep Singh and Rovman Powell are capable of contributing with a few overs as well.
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Similarly, Anil Kumble was surprised by the call as well.
“I am surprised that Rahane won the toss and chose to bat first. On a pitch like this, where there's some rain around, ideally, you would want to field first,” Kumble said during the rain break.
India's former selector Saba Karim was also left confused by the call.
“I cannot understand this call. I cannot wrap my head around it,” Karim said.
KKR pushed on back foot early
Eventually, Rahane survived a scare as rain played spoilsport and KKR, PBKS shared a point each. KKR were 25/2 after 3.4 overs when rain stopped the game. The home team was on the back foot as they had lost their overseas star batters Finn Allen and Cameron Green cheaply. PBKS’ Australian pacer Xavier Bartlett had dismissed Allen and Green in his first over itself. The early wickets led to a conservative approach. Rahane was batting on eight runs from six balls whereas Angkrish Raghuvanshi was on a run-a-ball seven.
KKR move up one place
While PBKS reached the top of the points table with five points from three games, RCB moved from ninth to eighth position, above winless Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). KKR's net run rate (NRR) is poor at -1.964. Their next clash is at home as well. They will face Rishabh Pant's Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 9.