KKR vs SRH, Qualifier 1 at Ahmedabad, IPL, May 21 2024 - Live Match
If it wasn't for Abhishek Sharma dismantling spinners, it would have been easy to say KKR should open with one of their two in-form spinners: Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. However, Abhishek has been brutal against spin, which means the spinner has to be excellent with his control if he is used against Travis Head.
Will Jacks had success against Head by staying away from arc, which also holds for spinners against Abhishek. It helps that both of KKR's spinners can bowl offbreaks. It is worth giving one end to spin, but the bowler has to be spot on against these two batters.
With pace, teams have looked to contain Head and Abhishek by either placing their boundary riders at point and cover, or by placing a deep square cover and a deep midwicket, and attacking the stumps or the armpits. Vaibhav Arora's natural length does attack the top of stumps with some movement away from left-hand batters, which makes him an important part of KKR's plans. It is easier to shut off Abhishek with seam: bowl top of off. Head might need more defensive lines outside off.
As a nice little bonus, Bhuvneshwar's record against Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the likely replacement for Salt, reads: four balls, zero runs and two wickets. This happened as recently as the two matches against KKR last year
