IPL 2025: Mentor Dwayne Bravo lambasts KKR's top order – NewsBytes

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Kolkata Knight Riders’s (KKR) mentor Dwayne Bravo has expressed his disappointment over the team’s performance.
He highlighted the need for Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, and Venkatesh Iyer to provide stronger starts in IPL 2025.
This comes after the team failed to chase down 199 against Gujarat Titans on Monday.
He also talked about Andre Russell‘s woes against GT spinners Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan.
Although he scored 21 runs off 15 balls, Russell couldn’t hit well against the spinners.
Support
Responding to queries regarding Russell’s performance this season, Bravo defended the all-rounder.
He said Russell isn’t the only KKR player struggling with runs and stressed on the need for team support.
“Andre Russell is an experienced and successful player,” Bravo said in the post-match press conference.
“Yes, in a couple of games, the leg-spinners got him out. But I don’t think we are batting well as a team. That is the reality.”
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Bravo urged KKR’s top-order batsmen to take more responsibility.
He highlighted that when Russell comes out to bat, the required run rate is usually high.
“When Russell walks in to bat, every time the run rate is at 14 or 15 runs per over,” Bravo noted.
“Work needs to be done at the top to give him a chance to finish off games like he has been doing all these years for KKR.”
Underperformance
KKR also tweaked their batting order, bringing in Rahmanullah Gurbaz for Quinton de Kock and pushing Venkatesh Iyer to No.4.
But the changes didn’t pay off as they fell short in their run chase.
The openers Narine and Gurbaz couldn’t give a solid start, while Iyer (14 off 19) and Rahane (50 off 36 balls) added runs but struggled with their strike rate in the powerplay.
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KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane conceded that the top-order has been underwhelming.
“I thought 199 was chaseable, we came back into the game really well with the ball,” Rahane said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“You expect good opening starts, but that’s what we’re struggling with throughout the tournament. We need to learn as quickly as possible.”

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