OPINION: Narine is the most important Twenty20 player on the planet after IPL triumph
Before the 2024 IPL season, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were not one of many experts' favourites to lift the trophy or even make the play-offs. They were not in terrible shape as a team but many fans and analysts alike glanced at their squad and thought: ‘not quite there.’
KKR’s marquee recruit in the 2024 auction had been a risky one - Australian quick Mitchell Starc, the most expensive auction acquisition of all time. They had lost incumbent opener Jason Roy, who withdrew from the tournament for personal reasons, and replaced him with fellow Englishman Phil Salt. Their captain Shreyas Iyer was recently shorn of his central contact with India and then there were KKR’s mainstays, Narine and fellow West Indian superstar Andre Russell.
Narine and Russell were both north of 35 going into the season and despite being absolute legends of the IPL and T20 cricket in general, there was a sense that they were in the autumn of their respective careers, waning ever so slightly in their abilities.
As it turned out, both Narine and Russell had brilliant tournaments. Salt was a revelation at the top of the order and Starc showed up in the play-offs in a big way to help fire KKR to their third IPL title.
See the scorecard from the final here.
Narine, in particular, pulled off one of the great T20 tournaments in terms of all-round performance. Opening the batting alongside Salt for most of the season, he finished among the top 10 run-scorers and continued producing his unique and miserly brand of mystery spin to again be one of the IPL’s best with the ball in hand.
We are now used to Narine’s mystery spin. He’s been one of the best on the T20 circuit for years and rarely has an off-game. This season, he took a wicket in every single match he played and ended up with an incredible economy rate of 6.69 - the lowest of any spinner to bowl more than 10 overs in the season and the second lowest of any bowler to bowl more than 10 overs behind only Jasprit Bumrah (6.48). The big surprise of his season was what Narine offered with the bat.
Narine had opened the batting before - he first did it in 2017 in Australia’s Big Bash League. What’s more, KKR utilised him in what could be described as a ‘pinch-hitting’ opening role in 2017 and 2018 alongside Chris Lynn. That experiment worked pretty well but not well enough for the franchise to stick with it long-term and certainly not well enough for people to reconsider Narine as a genuine allrounder - someone who could be selected in the team for either skill.
By and large, Narine’s opening era felt like it had passed. Between the start of the 2020 season and the latest one, Narine opened just seven times in the IPL. In that period, he got to double figures only once. However, the decision-makers at KKR knew something that the rest of the world didn’t: Narine was not finished opening. In fact, he was just getting started.
The 2024 season was by far his best season with the bat in the IPL. He notched four 50+ scores, his three highest career scores and his first ton in any format. His 488 runs were the tournament’s ninth most for any batter. Of the top nine run-scorers, his strike rate of 180.74 was second only to Australia's Travis Head (191.55).
This is a guy who was long considered a bowler who could swing the bat and chip in with some runs in the lower order. At 36, Narine has proven that old dogs can indeed learn new tricks and brilliant ones at that. What’s more, he has ripped off his tag as a ‘pinch hitter’ and tossed it in the bin. Narine was not simply pitching in with a few fast runs in the power play, he finished the season among the IPL's top batters.
For the above reasons, the term ‘allrounder’ even feels a little light when we think of Narine’s 2024 IPL season. Allrounders have two skills they could rightfully be selected for but very seldom are both skills elite.
Being one of the best batters and one of the best bowlers, the level of Narine’s contribution, as well as the ingenuity of his execution in both disciplines, deserve weightier terminology. To put it another way, Narine has completely redefined the expectations of what a cricketer can be in the format. He's a genuine innovator with bat and ball and, for these reasons, he's the most important T20 player on the planet right now.
Narine could yet be a mainstay at KKR and in other franchise leagues around the world for another couple of years. Let’s hope this season wasn’t a flash in the pan and that his outrageous form continues. Beyond that, once he steps away from the top level of the game, I’ve no doubt that as T20 cricket becomes more and more its own sport and more and more the focus of cricket’s international expansion, Narine’s 2024 IPL season will be held up as a special example, as a prophetic offering of what a cricketer can do.
It remains a huge shame that Narine is not currently involved with the West Indies setup and will not be participating at the upcoming T20 World Cup (held in the West Indies and USA) just as it was a disappointment that he missed the previous T20 World Cup as well.
Despite that, his stylistic legacy will be felt in the tournament and, more importantly, far beyond it as T20 propels the sport of cricket into new markets. There is now a ripple running through the world's best teams as the other stars of the game look over at Narine’s glowing IPL season and think: ‘Well if he can do that, why can’t I?’.
