{"id":22502,"date":"2025-12-16T16:04:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T10:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=671937"},"modified":"2025-12-16T16:04:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T10:34:01","slug":"ipl-2026-sunil-narine-unlikely-to-open-as-kkr-look-to-revamp-top-order-says-abhishek-nayar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\/ipl-2026-sunil-narine-unlikely-to-open-as-kkr-look-to-revamp-top-order-says-abhishek-nayar\/","title":{"rendered":"IPL 2026: Sunil Narine unlikely to open as KKR look to revamp top order, says Abhishek Nayar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sunil Narine is <strong>unlikely to continue as an opener for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2026 season<\/strong>, with the franchise signalling a shift in strategy as part of a broader squad overhaul. The indication came from <strong>KKR mentor Abhishek Nayar<\/strong>, who suggested that the team is exploring a <strong>new opening combination<\/strong> for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p>KKR are currently undergoing a <strong>major rebuild<\/strong> after releasing several key players ahead of the <strong>IPL 2026 mini-auction<\/strong>. One of the franchise\u2019s primary objectives during the auction has been to <strong>secure a specialist wicketkeeper-batter capable of opening the innings<\/strong>, underlining a clear change in their top-order planning.<\/p>\n<p>Narine has opened the batting for KKR in previous seasons, a move that produced <strong>mixed results<\/strong>. While the experiment delivered explosive starts at times, inconsistency and the need for better balance appear to have prompted the management to rethink his role. According to the current thinking, Narine may be used in a <strong>more defined bowling role<\/strong> or as a <strong>flexible batting option lower down the order<\/strong>, allowing KKR to strengthen their top order with specialist batters.<\/p>\n<p>The potential change also aligns with KKR\u2019s recent auction moves and role clarity discussions, as the franchise looks to optimise combinations across departments rather than rely on makeshift solutions.<\/p>\n<p>With the <strong>IPL 2026 mini-auction still in progress<\/strong>, KKR\u2019s final squad composition and batting order remain subject to change. However, the early signals suggest that <strong>Sunil Narine opening the innings is no longer a certainty<\/strong>, marking a notable tactical shift ahead of the new season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunil Narine is unlikely to continue as an opener for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2026 season, with\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":42534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4057],"class_list":["post-22502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl","tag-top-stories"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}