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This team has more baggage than Louis Vuitton. Most of the
Final XI are no longer part of their
national squad.
Skipper, Gambhir, has a team of amazing has-beens. The very reason for this team is the nostalgia they serve at the post match party.
The memory chest overruns with Gambhir and Kallis on top. Manish Pandey was the first Indian to score an IPL 100. Uthappa hasn’t done much since he doffed his imaginary hat vs. Pakistan in 2007. Yusuf Pathan. Where do you start with Yusuf? You could ask his dad? Or Irfan? Or speak to his chewing gum. They all will have a tale to tell.
“..and what a time it was, it was...”
And if this wasn’t enough, there’s the Blast-from-the- Piyush Chawla.
If only these guys could play in sepia.
But all play they will, for Gambhir has to prove them wrong. The Avengers come to mind. Only KKR does not have an A in it.
But there is thought to this team, and it challenges Gambhir, Yusuf, Uthappa, Chawla – to start thinking, from has-beens to wannabes to will-bees, to who knows, maybe even a Beatle. Chawla would be Ringo. Gambhir, Lennon. Uthappa, Paul. And Yusuf, George.
Vinay Kumar would be the 5th Beatle.
But what will Umesh Yadav be? From being India’s go-to bowler, he’s either injured or benched, even Varun Aaron’s beamers play before him. Yadav has played only 1 T20 international. Ishant Sharma has played 14, going at 8.63 runs per over, 8 wickets, average 50. Their IPL numbers though are woefully similar. As are most Indian medium fast types.
Other firangs have their own baggage: Shakib, KKR barely play him, not foreign enough for them. Should be their first overseas’ player. Kallis started with Wasim Jaffer and Chanderpaul in RCB’s famous Test Playing IPL team. Since then, he’s retired from Test cricket. Kallis can bat, bowl and grow hair. But in spite of all his greatness, there’s way too much method in his batting to be your go-to-T20 batsman top of the order. Can’t you see that dot played straight to cover with that beautifully angled bat?
Andre Russell inhabited the DD bench more than Tiwary, India’s. And when Russell did play, he bowled that one over, that invariably was his last. Morne Morkel was dropped by DD for a qualifier/semi-final/Eliminator ; yeah, one of those things, when he was their top bowler. And he’s seen some bad days in the IPL, bowls length, almost as readily as Ishant. Gets hammered, like Ishant. But can run through the batting, unlike Ishant. But if you watched him slide and sort-of-field, your heart with bleed for the turf and his limbs in equal measure.
And then there’s Sunil Narine, who doesn’t quite fit into this team but won them the tournament, outsourcing it’s called.
Likely Playing XI (batting order)
Skipper, Gambhir, has a team of amazing has-beens. The very reason for this team is the nostalgia they serve at the post match party.
The memory chest overruns with Gambhir and Kallis on top. Manish Pandey was the first Indian to score an IPL 100. Uthappa hasn’t done much since he doffed his imaginary hat vs. Pakistan in 2007. Yusuf Pathan. Where do you start with Yusuf? You could ask his dad? Or Irfan? Or speak to his chewing gum. They all will have a tale to tell.
“..and what a time it was, it was...”
And if this wasn’t enough, there’s the Blast-from-the- Piyush Chawla.
If only these guys could play in sepia.
But all play they will, for Gambhir has to prove them wrong. The Avengers come to mind. Only KKR does not have an A in it.
But there is thought to this team, and it challenges Gambhir, Yusuf, Uthappa, Chawla – to start thinking, from has-beens to wannabes to will-bees, to who knows, maybe even a Beatle. Chawla would be Ringo. Gambhir, Lennon. Uthappa, Paul. And Yusuf, George.
Vinay Kumar would be the 5th Beatle.
But what will Umesh Yadav be? From being India’s go-to bowler, he’s either injured or benched, even Varun Aaron’s beamers play before him. Yadav has played only 1 T20 international. Ishant Sharma has played 14, going at 8.63 runs per over, 8 wickets, average 50. Their IPL numbers though are woefully similar. As are most Indian medium fast types.
Other firangs have their own baggage: Shakib, KKR barely play him, not foreign enough for them. Should be their first overseas’ player. Kallis started with Wasim Jaffer and Chanderpaul in RCB’s famous Test Playing IPL team. Since then, he’s retired from Test cricket. Kallis can bat, bowl and grow hair. But in spite of all his greatness, there’s way too much method in his batting to be your go-to-T20 batsman top of the order. Can’t you see that dot played straight to cover with that beautifully angled bat?
Andre Russell inhabited the DD bench more than Tiwary, India’s. And when Russell did play, he bowled that one over, that invariably was his last. Morne Morkel was dropped by DD for a qualifier/semi-final/Eliminator ; yeah, one of those things, when he was their top bowler. And he’s seen some bad days in the IPL, bowls length, almost as readily as Ishant. Gets hammered, like Ishant. But can run through the batting, unlike Ishant. But if you watched him slide and sort-of-field, your heart with bleed for the turf and his limbs in equal measure.
And then there’s Sunil Narine, who doesn’t quite fit into this team but won them the tournament, outsourcing it’s called.
Likely Playing XI (batting order)
1 Gambhir
2 Kallis
3 Manish Pandey
4 Uthappa
5 Shakib
6 Yusuf Pathan
7 Ryan Ten Doeschate / Chris Lynn / Cummins / Morne Morkel
8 Piyush Chawla
9 Narine
10 Vinay Kumar
11 Umesh Yadav / Bisla
KKR could make the playoffs, either for the top four or the
bottom two: depends how far can one man’s belief in his jaded army can take them?
