Gautam Gambhir is India's Head Coach. Credits - AFP
With the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) rocking on, it is the summer of cricket in the sub-continent. Head Coach Gautam Gambhir is holidaying after a taxing season in which India won the silverware at the 2026 T20 World Cup. The former KKK captain and mentor is still in talks during the IPL 2026 season.
With KKR fumbling under Ajinkya Rahane, fans are recalling the franchise’s old days under Gambhir, who led them in two of their three championship seasons - 2012 and 2014. Meanwhile, he was Kolkata's mentor as they bagged a third after a 10-year exile with Shreyas Iyer at the reins.
However, since the departure of Gambhir and Iyer from the franchise, KKR are witnessing a slump in form. Ahead of IPL 2025, the three-time winning champions released their trophy-lifting skipper and later appointed Rahane as the skipper. KKR finished at eighth spot with five victories and seven defeats (two games were washed out).
Finch takes credits of using Sunil Narine as opener
While speaking on ESPNcricinfo, former Australian captain Aaron Finch discussed Kolkata's old days. When the host asked about KKR's kingmaker and their triumph card, Sunil Narine, Finch recalled an unknown story involving the Carribean star.
Gambhir is often credited for using Narine as an opener, while, as it turned out, it was Finch who used the Carribean cricketer at the top of the order even before KKR experimented with Narine.
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Australia's T20 World Cup-winning captain has revealed that even before KKR did, Finch's Melbourne Renegades used Narine as an opener in a T20 game.
"Andrew McDonald was the coach, I was the captain at Renegades. We were a bit short in our batting. We were coming up a guy from Melbourne Stars called Michael Bear, who used to bowl little left-arm curlers inside the powerplay. And I struggled to get him away for boundaries. So we said, Sunny, 'How about open the batting?'. He said, 'I'd love to do it'. He walked out, and started smacking the quicks and blocking the spin, because he goes, I don't really hit spin that well," Aaron Finch narrated on ESPNcricinfo.
The Sunil Narine effect as opener in IPL
Sunil Narine opened the innings for the first time in the Big Bash League during the 2016-17 season. His impact was on display from the word go as he attacked the opposition bowlers inside the powerplay. Although he batted at the top in just three innings for Melbourne Renegades to score 37 runs, he batted with a whopping strike rate of 137.
Interestingly, Narine's turnaround as a batter came with KKR. He smacked his way around, hitting 222 runs and 343 runs during the IPL 2017 and IPL 2018 seasons. Again in IPL 2024, he opened the innings across 14 innings, having his best season as a batter, with 488 runs at 180.7, including his maiden T20 ton. As a result, Kolkata lifted its third trophy in the IPL.
Where should Sunil Narine ideally bat?
Interestingly, KKR went with Sunil Narine, the opener in IPL 2025 as well, where he smoked 246 in 12 innings at a strike rate of 170.8. However, come the IPL 2026, Kolkata are opening with Ajinkya Rahane and Finn Allen.
After three defeats in the first four games, fans are calling on the team management to promote Narine as an opener going forward.
Overall, Narine has hit 1792 runs in the IPL, whereas 1463 of those runs have come while opening the innings. Promoting the unorthodox batter will not just give them depth in batting, but might also force the opposition teams to switch from Plan A to Plan B.
Nevertheless, KKR will next play against the Chennai Super Kings on April 14.
