How KKR shaped themselves into the awesome class of 2024
They have a clear philosophy, and they've managed to assemble a squad that is as close to bomb-proof as any can get in the fickle world of T20
Trailblazers KKR and SRH face off for ultimate glory
Tactics Board: Who wins the Starc vs Head battle? Will dew play a part?
How to keep up with the chaotic nature of T20s, the Varun Chakravarthy way
Big game, white ball, first over: Starc's romance for the ages
Wide of off: where the IPL bowlers are going to shelter from the sixes
KKR finished seventh on the league table in IPL 2022 and 2023. In both seasons, they gave off the sense of a team trying to play in an idealistic sort of way without quite having the resources to pull it off consistently. They were, to put it simply, an inferior version of what SRH have been in 2024.
For all the intent KKR showed in 2022 and 2023, there were clear weaknesses running through their line-up. One that a number of bowling teams exploited was a vulnerability against the short ball that ran through their line-up. Take this chase of 177 against Lucknow Super Giants on a bouncy Pune deck in 2022: Mohsin Khan, Dushmantha Chameera, Avesh Khan and Jason Holder ripped through their top order in a spell of concerted short bowling and reduced them to 25 for 4 in 6.5 overs.
KKR have only used three No. 3s this season, usually either Venkatesh (six innings) or Angkrish Raghuvanshi (seven). Shreyas has been their No. 4 more often than not (10 out of 14 innings), but they've been a lot less rigid with who bats at No. 5 (Venkatesh, Shreyas and Rinku Singh have all occupied that position at least three times, No. 6 (usually either Rinku or Russell) and No. 7 (Ramandeep seven times, and Rinku and Venkatesh a combined five times).
This section is worth a standalone analysis, because KKR, for everything they've done with the bat, have arguably been the best bowling team of this IPL too. They have the best collective average (22.94) of all the teams, and the third-best economy rate (9.39), which is particularly remarkable because unlike the two teams that have done better than them, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, KKR have played most of their home games at one of this season's most batting-friendly venues.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo