High-profile absentees hurt Knight Riders' chances

Seven matches into their 2014 IPL season, Kolkata Knight Riders were sinking without a trace. They had won just two matches, and had just lost in embarrassing fashion to Rajasthan Royals. Chasing 171, they had gone from 121 for no loss to 123 for 6 in seven balls of madness. From there, with qualification for the playoffs looking a distant prospect, Knight Riders clicked into gear spectacularly, with seven wins in a row.

In their last league match, they chased down 161 in 14.2 overs, inspired by a 22-ball 72 from Yusuf Pathan, to pip Chennai Super Kings to second place by virtue of their net run rate, and earned themselves two cracks at a spot in the final. They got there in their first attempt, beating Kings XI Punjab - who topped the league table - by 28 runs in the Qualifier. Facing Kings XI again in the final, Knight Riders' bowling for once let them down, and they were left having to chase 200. They got there courtesy a brilliant innings of 94 from Manish Pandey, and became IPL champions for the second time in three seasons.

Sunil Narine is probably the most influential T20 player in the world. The four overs he sends down are almost guaranteed to set the batting side back both in terms of run-rate and wickets. If his IPL statistics are exceptional - an average of 16.13 and an economy rate of 5.77 - his output in the CLT20 for T&T and Knight Riders has been downright freakish - an average of 9.37 and an economy rate of 4.46. Simply having him in their attack has made Knight Riders the best bowling side in the IPL for the last three seasons. And he will have support even in the absence of Morne Morkel and Shakib Al Hasan, with Pat Cummins set to get his longest run in the team yet; Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar and Piyush Chawla providing decent back-up; and Jacques Kallis, Ryan ten Doeschate and Yusuf Pathan around to chip in and cover any holes left by the specialists.

Knight Riders have not had the happiest build-up to the Champions League T20. Having already lost Chris Lynn - who had to undergo shoulder surgery - and Shakib Al Hasan - who was not given an NOC by his board - they suffered another blow when Morne Morkel was ruled out with a shoulder injury. All of this has left the team with only five overseas players to choose from, leaving them with barely any squad depth, particularly in the bowling department, to cover for anyone going through a bad patch.

On paper, Knight Riders' batting did not look as fearsome as some of the other line-ups in the 2014 IPL season, but no other team had an opener as consistent as Robin Uthappa. He topped the tournament run-charts with 660 in 16 innings, strung together ten successive 40-plus scores, and did it all at a strike rate of 137.78, a quite astonishing feat in a format where the pursuit of quick runs almost demands playing low-percentage shots. Such a run of form is hard to repeat, but Knight Riders will be fairly happy even if Uthappa plays half as well as he did in the IPL.

Knight Riders' spin resources have taken a bit of a hit with Shakib Al Hasan not playing the tournament, but his absence could give the team an opportunity to try out Kuldeep Yadav, a 19-year-old left-arm chinaman bowler from Kanpur. Kuldeep was one of the standout performers at the Under-19 World Cup in the UAE, finishing the tournament as its second-highest wicket-taker with 14 wickets at 16.42 and an economy rate of 4.14.

Knight Riders have qualified for the Champions League twice previously, in 2011 and 2012, but failed to reach the knockout stage both times.