Why Knight Riders haven't felt Andre Russell's absence

When Andre Russell was ruled out of IPL 2017, it was expected that Kolkata Knight Riders would be hit badly by his absence. His batting had been valuable in the two previous IPL seasons. In 2015 and 2016, Russell had scored 514 runs in 19 innings at an average of 32.12 and a strike rate of 181.62, apart from taking 29 wickets at an economy rate of 7.96. Knight Riders had the bowling line-up to back up his absence, but Russell's batting in the end overs was difficult to compensate for: among all batsmen who faced 200-plus balls in these two seasons, his strike rate was the highest.

Knight Riders have felt the absence of Russell this season: their run-rate in the last five overs so far is 8.78, the lowest among all teams. They are the only team scoring at fewer than nine an over; the next lowest is 9.34, by Kings XI Punjab. The run-rate of 8.78 is also Knight Riders' lowest in the death overs across all IPL seasons: in 2015, they had a rate of 10.31 in these overs; in 2016 it was 9.78.

However, to compensate, Knight Riders have smartly upped their game in the first 15 overs, ensuring that the loss of a key power-hitter hasn't impacted the overall run-rate, or the results. They have changed their batting order to include a pinch-hitter at the top, and extracting more from the others in the top four.

In the first six overs, Knight Riders have averaged 10.16 runs per over, the best among all teams this season, and their best across seasons; their previous highest in any season was only 8.44 in 2015. Similarly, their middle-overs run-rate of 8.56 is their best across seasons, and the second best among all teams this season, after Sunrisers Hyderabad's 8.87.

The top four have all stepped up to ensure this has happened. The promotion of Sunil Narine to the top of the order has turned out to be a masterstroke so far - he has scored at a strike rate of 195.08 when he has opened the batting, the best among all openers this season. In second place is Chris Lynn, the batsman who Narine has replaced at the top of the order: Lynn scored at a strike rate of 192.30 before being ruled out of the tournament due to injury.

While Narine - and Lynn before him - provided the impetus at the top of the order, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey have also improved their scoring rates from the previous two seasons. The overall strike rate for Knight Riders' top four has gone up from 127.79 in the previous two seasons, to nearly 154 this season, an increase of 20%. The average has gone up as well, which means the top four have scored quickly for a significant period of time, thereby minimising the need for big hitting in the last five overs.

After seven completed games in their last two seasons, Knight Riders had 4-3 win-loss records; this time they have gone one better with a 5-2 record. That is a pretty good indicator of how well they have dealt with the unavailability of Andre Russell.