Sunil Narine’s Batting Touted As One Of The Weak Links For KKR In IPL 2025 By Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra touted Sunil Narine’s batting as a huge weak link for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after the IPL 2025 mega auction. Sunil Narine was retained by the KKR franchise along with Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, and Ramandeep Singh.

Despite his outstanding performance in the IPL 2024, in which he scored 488 runs at a strike rate of 180.74, Aakash Chopra is concerned about Narine’s ability to reproduce such form in the IPL 2025.

Sunil Narine was a revelation at the top of the order last season, forging a destructive opening partnership with Phil Salt for the Kolkata Knight Riders and helping them win their third IPL title. With Salt out, KKR might partner Narine with Quinton de Kock or Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

Aakash Chopra has urged the Kolkata franchise not to rely too heavily on Sunil Narine’s batting abilities in the IPL 2025, noting his erratic performances in previous IPL seasons and other tournaments since his explosive campaign earlier this year.

Sunil Narine’s batting form in IPL 2024 was an aberration: Aakash Chopra

Narine struggled with the bat in the three IPL seasons preceding his breakout season as an opener with the KKR in 2024. These unimpressive stats, combined with the added strain of reproducing his previous season’s success, could be a possible weak link in the Kolkata Knight Riders’ preparations for next season.

Chopra acknowledged that Narine’s dual role as a spin-bowling all-rounder is still important for KKR, but the franchise may need to reconsider their plan if runs do not flow from his bat as openers as they did last season. He believes Narine’s batting could be perilous for Kolkata.

“You are assuming that Sunil Narine will have a similar season as a batter. It’s great if that happens. I will say sandesh, rasgulla, rasmalai, mishti doi, and everything in his name, but what are the chances of it being like that—not very bright.

would say what happened last year was an aberration and I am saying that because if you see the three seasons before that as a batter and his returns with the bat since the IPL until now, he has not scored the runs at all. So how can you assume that he will do very well? (Phil) Salt won’t be there with him in any case,” Chopra stated on his YouTube channel.

Chopra believes South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock has the potential to succeed, but his inconsistent performance is a problem. According to the cricket expert, De Kock and Narine will open for Kolkata next season, and if the new opening pair fails to deliver, they will suffer greatly in the absence of Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana.

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