2. Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders)
When Sunil Narine—the man with the mohawk from Trinidad—burst on to the scene in 2012 as a mystery spinner for the then Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders, we had very little inkling that almost six years later, the same man would find himself topping the charts for the highest strike-rate (only batsmen with minimum 300 runs considered) of the season. His ability to exploit the field restrictions for the first six overs, coupled with his unflinching bravado against spinners, make him a formidable batsman in the shortest format of the game.
On the bowling front, he fared reasonably well, taking 17 wickets from 16 games @ 27.47 runs apiece and an economy of 7.65, while finishing as the joint fifth-highest wicket-taker of the tournament. This was a good enough performance—especially considering the fact that he has had to alter his bowling action after he was reported for a suspected bowling action during the Pakistan Super League earlier this year.
Shane Watson (man of the match in the final), Jos Buttler and Ambati Rayudu, too, could have made the opening slot. But with Narine, the left-hander opening the batting alongside Rahul, the right-hander, it allows us to play an extra batsman in the middle order and lends the much-needed balance to the side.
Stats: Batting: Matches 16, Runs 357, Average 22.31, S/R 189.89, HS 75, two 50s.
Bowling: Wickets 17, Average 27.47, Economy 7.65, BBM 3/18.
Most memorable performance: An all-round display of 4-0-30-1 and 50 off 19 balls (4 fours and 5 sixes) against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, which got KKR’s IPL-2018 campaign off to a good start.
