IPL 2020 | Game over for KKR in IPL 2020 if Sunil Narine is banned, opines Michael Vaughan
Michael Vaughan, on the back of Sunil Narine being issued his final warning for a suspect bowling action, has claimed that it will be lights out for KKR in the case of them losing Narine for the rest of IPL 13. Vaughan also feels that teams might now start talking to officials about Narine’s action.
On Saturday versus Kings XI Punjab, Sunil Narine helped Kolkata Knight Riders pull off the most remarkable heist imaginable, but the win came at a cost as later that night, the mystery spinner, who has a history of being banned for possessing an illegal bowling action, was issued his final warning for chucking. The officials deemed Narine’s action to be illegal and thus, he was served a ‘one and done’ notice, meaning he would be banned from the rest of the competition should he be found guilty of chucking one more time.
The fiasco has created anxiety within the KKR camp and former English cricketer Michael Vaughan believes that the two-time champions’ IPL 2020 campaign will be over in the case of them losing Narine. Vaughan described Narine as KKR’s trump card and attested that, with Russell also carrying an injury, he cannot see the Dinesh Karthik-led side competing should they lose Narine.
“If Sunil Narine is not going to play that much more in the IPL, I think KKR are gone. I don’t think they have enough in the bowling department to win this year’s IPL,” Vaughan said on Cricbuzz LIVE.
“With Sunil Narine, you just know that you can save him up for three overs in the end and he just causes chaos. Whatever you’re defending, or if you’re bowling first, he gets wickets. Batsmen have played against him so many times and yet they still don’t pick him. If he’s not going to play much of a role from hereon, and if Andre Russell is also going to miss out due to injury, KKR are really going to struggle to compete.”
Vaughan looked at potential replacements for Narine in the KKR squad and identified Tom Banton as one, but claimed that the youngster will bring inconsistency with him. The former English skipper also picked Australia’s Chris Green as a like-for-like replacement but found irony in the same, given how it was only 10 months ago that Green, himself, was thrown out of the BBL for allegedly boasting an illegal action.
“He (Banton) is a good player. Young player so he’s not got too much consistency with him. He can have a great day out and get you a quick fifty. He’s got a fantastic career ahead of him. But Chris Green (as Narine’s replacement) is also interesting. Because he had to leave the Big Bash League due to a problem in his action so it’s quite ironic that KKR might have to replace Narine with someone who has the same problem,” the 45-year-old said.
But despite Narine having been just issued a ‘warning’, Vaughan reckoned that teams will now try to do everything they can to possibly alert the officials. According to the 45-year-old, teams might now start nagging the officials about Narine’s action, given they know that the mystery spinner will be done for the tournament should he get reported one more time.
“The problem now is that when teams play KKR, they might go to the umpires and match-referees and say that ‘come on, you’ve gotta have a look (at his action)’. Everyone knows now that he is one more strike away from getting completely washed out of the tournament.”