Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin questioned Kolkata Knight Riders strategy of using Sunil Narine as opener after they suffered a 32-run loss against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Tuesday.

Narine scored 24 runs off 17 balls against CSK while opening the innings. The left-hander could not bring his A-game with the bat and was also dropped when he was on 18 by Ruturaj Gaikwad. Narine has scored 36 runs in two innings in IPL 2026.

Ashwin highlighted that Narine is not batting at the top of the order in any of the other leagues and thus opening with him is not worth the gamble.

“KKR sent Sunil Narine to open, that is not wrong. Sunil Narine is a fantastic striker of the ball, but he is not in form only. He is not batting in any league anywhere, he only bowls. I know they want more intent, but Rahane was playing with a strike rate of 180 in the powerplay. Rahane’s strike rate dips only after the sixth over,” R Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi also struggled to get going as they scored 28 and 27 runs respectively in the run-chase. Ashwin highlighted that KKR are making so many mistakes and they are also down on confidence after four losses in five games.

“Then Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi batted together, that is also a tempo killer. KKR made a lot of mistakes. They don’t have the players, they don’t have the depth, they don’t have momentum, there is no confidence. After all of this, you cannot go and make so many mistakes,” Ashwin said.

KKR will need to quickly turn a corner and come back stronger in the upcoming games. 

Kolkata Knight Riders will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Friday.