Sunil Narine’s opening appearance for Kolkata Knight Riders in this IPL proved to be a stroke of genius and the credit for West Indies’ promotion should go to team mentor Gautam Gan Bill (Gautam Gambhir), Rinku Singh thinks. Narine scored his maiden T20 hundred against Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday with a 56-ball 109. His performance this season has been nothing short of remarkable considering he has scored just 154 runs in total over the past three seasons while ranking lower as a batsman. He has scored 276 points in six games as the season opener.

Narine paid due praise to former skipper Gambhir for opening the gates for him for the first time since 2017 after scoring a memorable hundred at the Eden Gardens.

During the post-game interaction, Rinku echoed Narine’s words.

“You can see the way Narine is batting this time. In every match, he is making runs, opening up the bat and it is just his (Gambier’s) mind,” Rinku said.

In 2017, Narine became an opener under Gambhir and smashed the fastest fifty in IPL in 15 balls, a record that was later shared by KL Rahul (14), Pat Cummins (14) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) gradually improved.

Narine also scored a 13-ball 50 for Comilla Victoria in the Bangladesh Premier League 2022 against Chittagong Challengers.

Earlier, he could only spin the bat, but this time around, Narine batted with skill and composure as his ability to hit the ball inside the arc was much improved.

When asked about the transition, Lincu said: “Nothing much has changed. It’s the result of his hard work with the Nets.”

“I just noticed a change – he is more patient now. Where before he was used to swinging the bat and hitting every ball, now he restrains himself and plays the ball on its merits. He bats the ball thoughtfully and intelligently. “

But Narine’s century was in vain as Jos Buttler (107 not out; 60b) showed his masterclass and single-handedly led Rajasthan Royals to win eight off the last ball of the match. A wicket victory.

“This happens sometimes but it doesn’t affect too much. Our team did a good job. We didn’t think too much (about the defeat). Credit to RR, they did a good job. Also, you need a little luck. It was Buttler’s innings that day that was the turning point,” Rinku said.

With KKR’s top players performing strongly this time, finisher Rinku emerged as the leading scorer for KKR in IPL 2023 with 474 runs at 59.25, but he did not get many chances.

Rinku has a total of 83 points this season at 27.66 but has yet to reach 50 points. But his hit rate is as high as 184 or more.

“Our top batsmen performed so well that I didn’t get much of a chance to show off my batting ability this time around.” Rinku came on as an impact substitute on Tuesday, and that was because of a minor issue. “I’m in some trouble and I will be back on Sunday against RCB,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)