Don’t think bringing Southee would make a lot of difference to KKR: Swann

In the opening game of the season, MS Dhoni, after batting extremely slowly, took on Andre Russell and Shivam Mavi in the death overs to guide the CSK side to a respectable total of 131 runs. The fact that Umesh Yadav was brilliant with the ball - bridging the powerplay gap - he would be in the squad for the time being but KKR might consider bringing in Tim Southee in place of Mavi for the RCB encounter at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai. 

However, former England spinner Graeme Swann is not a big fan of the change, doubting Southee’s death-overs credentials.

“I personally wouldn’t make any changes, even though people have been asking to change the death bowlers and stuff,” Swann told Cricket.com. “They beat CSK in a low-scoring game, and I thought they were brilliant. I don’t think they should be making any changes for game two. When you start with a win, you need to build on it immediately. I think that’s what they will do.

“I know Shivam Mavi went for a few at the death, but Dhoni played him brilliantly. And as we know, Dhoni is one of the best in the world. I don’t think bringing Southee in would make a huge difference - he is not a renowned death bowler, he is known for swinging it up-front. I wouldn’t make that change. I really wouldn’t. Southee is a world-class bowler and he does have the ability to swing, but we haven’t seen a whole lot of swing so far. It has nipped a bit, but it hasn’t really swung,” Swann added.

There was another option of KKR using either Varun Chakravarthy or Sunil Narine in the backend of the tournament, with Dhoni and Jadeja struggling big-time, but KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer decided to use that leverage in the middle-overs to kill the game right away. Swann understands the tactic and stated that KKR didn’t do that badly in the death overs either.

“It’s always a tricky one. When you’ve got spinners, and good ones like Narine and Chakravarthy, you don’t want to waste them. Those middle-overs when they pick up a lot of wickets, you don’t want to be wasting them. If they are taking wickets, keep them on. However, Narine is brilliant and he is hard to pick. So there’s always that option to hold him back. And he has done it before and done it well. But personally, I don’t think they did too badly (at the death) versus CSK.”