Mitchell Starc coming into the team boosted confidence of youngsters: Bharat Arun

Mitchell Starc. (Source -IPL/BCCI)

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) dream run in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) ended in them lifting the coveted title after a decade-long wait. In the final game, a disciplined bowling unit delivered when it mattered the most.

In the summit clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), KKR’s bowlers bundled out the opposition for a mere 113, setting up an easy chase as they won the game by eight wickets. Kolkata’s bowling coach Bharat Arun heaped praise on the unit.

The former Indian bowling coach highlighted how the team had suffered a couple of poor seasons, failing to make the playoffs in 2022 and 2023. This led to plenty of introspection and a focused approach to identify areas that needed improvement.

“It has been pretty tough the last two years, we didn’t qualify and there has been introspection and we worked on areas that needed to be worked on,” Arun said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

One such area was strengthening their bowling, which was addressed by roping in Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc for a whopping INR 24.75 crore. Starc’s arrival provided a huge confidence boost to the youngsters in the KKR ranks. The tall left-hander was responsible for taking charge of the bowling attack. The Australian had a poor start to the season but ended with 17 wickets and performed consistently towards the end.

“Mitch [Mitchell Starc] coming into the team boosted the confidence of the other youngsters. He has been one of the best bowlers in world cricket and he has been in such situations before, it’s about understanding Indian conditions and once he did that, it was magic all over,” he added.

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Bowling in tandem has worked exceptionally for us: Bharat Arun

Starc’s impact was evident in the finals against SRH, where he picked up two crucial wickets in the powerplay, including the prized scalp of Abhishek Sharma and later a crucial wicket of Rahul Tripathi. Sharma’s dismissal, in particular, is considered as the ball of the season by many experts.

The 61-year-old also praised the young Harshit Rana, who finished as KKR’s third-leading wicket-taker with 19 wickets. On the day of the final, Rana ended with figures of 2/24, picking crucial wickets of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen.

“He has been outstanding and it’s about the bowler understanding what his strengths are and when he does, it comes out beautifully on the ground,” Arun further added.

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The bowling coach didn’t forget to laud the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. He mentioned that they were exceptional throughout the tournament, as they picked 17 and 19 wickets, respectively.

“They have been outstanding, spinners mature with age, and both bowling in tandem has worked exceptionally for us. [on Narine opening] He has brought a different dimension to our batting this year and it was Gautam [Gambhir] who insisted that Sunny open and what Sunny did was outstanding,” he concluded.