Another season ended in disappointment for the Kolkata Knight Riders. It looks like a familiar story of unfulfilled promises and wasted opportunities after the Kolkata Knight Riders ended their IPL 2023 campaign with a one-run loss to Lucknow Super Giants at Eden Gardens on Saturday.

Where actually did the team err? Why did they fail to clinch a playoffs berth?

“We committed some small mistakes in batting and bowling. A few days haven’t gone our way... Just that we couldn’t win those games,” middle-order batter Rinku Singh stated after the loss to the Super Giants.

But is that all? The Telegraph looks at the reasons that troubled the team right through this season.

Pre-season homework

That regular skipper Shreyas Iyer would be absent this season due to his lower-back injury was something the Knight Riders management knew much before the competition began. Yet, they dillydallied and delayed in naming the stand-in captain.

That’s not all, Shreyas’ absence was felt in several games where the batting group struggled. In order to negate that, the franchise needed to be on its toes and go through those cricketers who have performed well in List A cricket with some level of experience.

But they didn’t and batting continued to ail the team right through. With no settled opening combination, the top order was unable to deliver most of the time.

Lack of team effort

Before the Knight Riders began their campaign, head coach Chandrakant Pandit had specifically spoken of the need to perform as a team and play as a unit. But the Knights seldom hunted in a pack.

Barring the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore at home, where fifties from Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Shardul Thakur and the assault of the spinners — Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma — brought a convincing win, the other wins were secured mostly through individual brilliance.

In a marathon league, individual brilliance cannot bail a side out all the time. The Knight Riders need to understand that.

Short on pace

Precisely, the Knights’ pace attack has been their weak link. Umesh Yadav, despite all his experience at the international level, hasn’t really been a performer in T20 cricket. Nor is Shardul, though he didn’t get to bowl much in this IPL.

The other two Indian quicks featuring in the last few matches, Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana, lack the experience required to play in such a competitive tournament. Thus, in every game, the spinners had to shoulder most of the workload, which did affect the performance of Chakravarthy and young Suyash at times.

Famed duo misfiring

Even last year, Narine and Andre Russell delivered little match-winning stuff. Barring the games against RCB, Chennai Super Kings (in Chennai) and to some extent versus Lucknow on Saturday, off-spinner Narine was far from his best. Before the away game against Chennai, Narine had taken only one wicket from nine matches, which is certainly unbecoming of a spinner of his class.

As for Russell, barring the clash against Punjab Kings at the Eden, there’s nothing of note to write about when it comes to his performance. Owing to the franchise's non-negotiable stance regarding the duo, quicks Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson had to sit out most of the time.

Nitish Rana, Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain for the season, poses for a picture with the fans after their last game of IPL 2023 at the Eden on Saturday. While Rana is all smiles, his team’s campaign failed to bring smiles on fans’ faces. Picture courtesy: KKR

Bizarre move

Nitish Rana hadn’t been doing too bad a job as captain. But his decision to bring himself on in the very first over of Rajasthan Royals’ reply when KKR were defending only 150 was bizarre and turned out to be disastrous. The in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal hammered Rana’s part-time spin for 26 in that over and gained all the rhythm to smash the Knights out of the match. Possibly, that blow played a huge role pushing the Knights back in the playoffs race.

Had Rana given any of his specialist spinners that first over, the task may not have become so easy for Jaiswal.

Few positives

Left-hander Rinku, the only consistent player in the KKR batting group, showed composure and temperament to pace his innings. And he also has the ability to change gears in the closing overs. He’s one big reason why the Knights’ campaign didn’t get over earlier.

Leg-spinner Suyash he tried his best to play the Impact Player’s role with the ball and was able to give his side important breakthroughs, irrespective of having no experience of first-class or List-A cricket. But for a team to succeed, there has to be more performers.