The Knight Riders, the tournament’s most successful franchise, did not make too many changes to the previous season’s roster. The team retained all of 11 players for this season’s CPL, set to run from August 18 to September 10.
The list includes Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Khary Pierre, Amir Jangoo, Tion Webster, Akeal Hosein, and Muhammad Ali Khan. They have also signed 18-year-old West Indies under-19 medium-pacer Jayden Seales, as well as carrying back Australian Fawad Ahmed and New Zealand’s Colin Munro after they had stints away last season.
“I’m very pleased with the balance of the team, certainly the captain and selection committee would have done a wonderful job in having several discussions about the balance of the team based on the types of wickets we will have in Trinidad,” Borde told Trinidad and Tobago’s 7pmnews.
“Certainly, I must commend them for sticking with the core of players that have worked with us over the years and have built a nice tight unit, and also bringing back the likes of Ahmed and Munroe,” he added.
“The balance, experience, and togetherness in this team is going to be something that will take us over the line. We are confident that if we do all the things we need to do, do them consistently and have a bit of luck on the way, we will be competing for the title as well.”
In truth, perhaps the Warriors, last season’s beaten finalist, will be relieved to not match the previous campaign's accomplishments, where they did not lose a match until the final of the competition. On Tuesday, on the back of the sizzling 63 from Shimron Hetmyer and 33 from Ross Taylor saw the post a respectable 144 for 5 in a reduced 17 overs.
In defense of the total, the Warriors got off to a strong start. Afghan pace sensation Naveen-ul-Haq, teamed with Green and Romario Shepherd combining to keep Knight Riders’ openers Narine and Lendl Simmons to just 9 off the first 3 overs. The Knight Riders found their feet with Narine hitting Green over midwicket.
"It was going to be tough beating 11 wins in a row from last year. Was a tough game, and the first game in a long time, so. Given the start, losing two early wickets, I think Taylor and Hetmyer batted really well,” Green said.
“We thought 140 would be a good score. We spoke about holding that length, and when we went away from that, we got hurt. Plenty of room for improvement."
In seven games to date, Walton has managed a paltry 14 runs at the top of the order. A closer look at the batsman's individual scores on the Tallawah’s scorecards card makes for even more horrific reading. On three occasions Walton has been dismissed without scoring, in three other matches he made 1 twice and 2 once. His highest total of 10 runs came against the Barbados Tridents.
With the team struggling to hold on to the crucial fourth-place spot, after 3 wins and 4 losses, pressure has continually built on the opener, who suffered a similar fate even when coming further down the batting line-up.
“To be honest when we look at our squad, we still have to back Chadwick. We just have to hope that he comes good at some point,” Powell said following the team’s latest loss to the Knight Riders.
“We are heading into the business end of the competition and hopefully he has the mental strength to pull through.”
Walton also struggled to make an impact for the team last season who had their worst season after finishing in last position.
