IPL 2022: Brendon McCullum rues Kolkata Knight Riders batters' inability to counter short balls from Gujarat Titans

IPL 2022, this time an eight-run defeat to Gujarat Titans at the DY Patil Stadium, Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum rued his batters' inability to counter short balls from the Hardik Pandya-led side, adding that the two-time champions will have to go back to the drawing board on countering such tactics. After restricting Gujarat to 156/9, Kolkata were under attack by the pace quartet of Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Alzarri Joseph and Yash Dayal while Rashid Khan's leg-spin kept them on a tight leash. Consistent usage of short balls, a pocket of weakness in many batters of Kolkata, resulted in them picking key wickets at crucial junctures to win by eight runs and go on top of points table.

"First and foremost, Gujarat Titans' bowling line-up is very well balanced. They've got some real pace, a bit of bounce, and some left-arm variety as well. It's a really good pace line-up and when you throw Rashid Khan in there, it's a pretty good bowling line-up.

"The way they bowled, I thought they attacked us the way we expected them to, which was more back of length and around the shoulder region. Unfortunately, we weren't able to counter that. We did a good job to get back in the game but unfortunate that we lost another tight one, they deserved to win," said McCullum in the post-match virtual press conference.

McCullum conceded that Kolkata's batters will have to find solutions of tackling short-ball ploy, especially against high-pace and quality pacers. "In the end, bounce can be your friend or foe depending on whether you're able to fight it. We've got to find a way to be able to find it and come out with a couple of technical things to try and use the pace rather than go against it.