SRH Vs KKR, IPL 2021: Narine and Rashid are undoubtedly two of the most priced spin bowlers in the world currently. Both of them would be in action today in the 3rd IPL 2021 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders. Both of them have 202 IPL wickets in between them. Narine has picked 127 and Rashid has 75 scalps. Today, we look at who could be more effective among the two.
Spinners have played a key role in winning matches for a lot of teams in T20 cricket. Many experts had written off spinners when T20 first arrived on the scene. But over the years, in IPL and in other leagues, spinners have proven to be more effective than the pacers. Although, sometimes they might go for runs, there is always a scope of taking a wicket when the slow bowlers are operating.
Both the teams have some good spinners in their ranks. Especially KKR, who have more than six spin options to choose from, namely Shakib Al Hasan, Harbhajan Singh, Sunil Narine, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Yadav and Rinku Singh. But Sunrisers, although with the likes of Nabi and Shahbaz Nadeem in their spin-bowling arsenal, they still heavily rely on Rashid Khan. Arguably, Rashid and Narine are the two stand out spinners among the ones mentioned above. Let’s make a small comparison between the two.
| Records (IPL) | Sunil Narine | Rashid Khan |
| Matches Played | 120 | 62 |
| Wickets | 127 | 75 |
| Strike Rate | 21.93 | 19.68 |
| Economy | 6.78 | 6.25 |
| Average | 24.78 | 20.49 |
As you can see, it’s difficult to single out one even after looking at their numbers. Rashid is slightly better in terms of economy and strike rate.
The match will be played in MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai which has a history of favoring the batsmen. Even a score in excess of 200 could be chased here. It will test the likes of Rashid and Narine but the conditions at Chidambaram Stadium would help the spinners especially in the second innings of the match. So the captain who would win the toss will field first.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Kedar Jadhav, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jason Holder, Virat Singh, Basil Thampi, Jagadeesha Suchith, Khaleel Ahmed, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Abhishek Sharma, Priyam GargKolkata
Knight Riders Squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sheldon Jackson, Sandeep Warrier, Tim Seifert, Lockie Ferguson, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Vaibhav Arora