Kolkata Knight Riders coach Brendon McCullum blasted the team’s top-order batsmen for not showing enough “intent and aggression” in the ongoing IPL after they crashed to their fifth defeat in seven games on Thursday.

“It’s very, very disappointing,” McCullum said. “I think as a player, you ask to be given freedom and confidence and loyalty when it comes to selection, to go out there and take the game on and try and be aggressive... and to try and make things happen for your team. That’s the style of play which both myself and the captain (Eoin Morgan) have asked of our players. But unfortunately we’re not quite getting that. We’re certainly not getting it in the abundance that we need,” the KKR coach said after the loss to Delhi Capitals.

“What we saw from Prithvi Shaw was the perfect template of how we want to play. You’re not always going to be able to hit every ball for four or six, but you can have the intent to do so, particularly when you’re given a free licence.

“It’s very difficult if you don’t play shots to score runs, and unfortunately tonight (Thursday) we didn’t play enough shots. It’s become a bit of a theme. A saying that I’ve used throughout my career is that ‘if you can’t change a man, change the man.’ So we’ll probably have to make some changes and try and bring in some fresh personnel who will hopefully take the game on a bit more.”

McCullum said that runs at the top were imperative, especially given the slow nature of the wickets in IPL 2021.

“Look, on a slow surface you’ve really got to maximise the new ball and the fielding restrictions,” he said. “One thing we have to get our heads around is that in T20 cricket, you’ve got to part with the old-school mentality of trying to find a boundary and then get a one. You’ve got to try and put some pressure back on the opposition bowlers.

“If you get a boundary, then look for another, and then look for another one. If you’re able to do that, then the opposition bowler is under an immense amount of pressure and normally what happens then is they don’t execute.

“It’s very difficult if you’re not trying to look for boundaries for that to happen. So it’s more of an application thing than it is anything else. It’s incredibly disappointing because I’ve asked time and time again for us to be more aggressive and more expressive and take the game on, and we continue to not do it. So we’re going to have to make some changes for sure.”

McCullum also spoke of Andre Russell’s batting position while praising his 45 not out off 27 balls.

“I had a conversation with Andre at the start of the season. We look at a lot of stats and facts and try to back what’s the best place for him… Ideally with the right platform, beyond 12th over is what we agreed on, but there are times when he’s going to have to come in a little bit earlier. Today (Thursday) he came in slightly earlier. It actually allowed him to settle a little bit, but he really couldn’t play with the same freedom, because we had fallen into a bit of a hole.”