Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals have been two of the most consistent sides in the IPL between 2022 and 2024. One of the reasons for their consistency was their impressive spin departments. The two franchises depended greatly on spinners, the only two sides to bag over 100 wickets with spin during the last three seasons. But before IPL 2025 season, they made different choices in team building. KKR retained their spin pair of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, providing stability to their attack. In contrast, RR let go of their veteran Indian spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin and roped in overseas players, Wanindu Hasaranga and Mahesh Theekshana. The Guwahati wicket has demonstrated that in the absence of dew, spinners are provided with support. Sunil Narine's unavailability at the last moment troubled KKR with the all-rounder being ruled out. Moeen Ali, who is famous for his dominance against left-handers because of his off spin, came in as a substitute and played a big role. The Royals began well in the Powerplay, going at 54/1, but KKR's spinners got them in a spot of trouble soon. From overs 7 to 13, Varun and Moeen combined to limit RR to 38 runs while taking four important wickets. Moeen adopted a structured strategy, bowling outside off-stump to right-handers and going after the stumps in the case of left-handers. Varun, by contrast, emphasized pitching hard and working with his variations. Yashasvi Jaiswal tried to counterattack Moeen immediately after the fall of Riyan Parag but did not succeed. Nitish Rana, normally dominant against off-spin, was beaten by a turning ball from Moeen. Hasaranga was promoted up in batting order to check KKR's run but was dismissed by a leg-break from Varun. Also Read | 'Haven’t Faced Such Bowling Since Ashes': Moeen Ali on Facing Archer KKR’s Spin Strategy Outplays RR’s Game Plan Parameter Varun & Moeen Hasaranga & Theekshana Overs bowled 8 7 Wickets taken 4 1 Economy rate 5.00 9.42 Boundary % 4.17% 19.05% vs positive matchups 4/23 (29 Balls Bowled) 1/34 (26 Balls Bowled) vs negative matchups 0/17 (19 Balls Bowled) 0/32 (16 Balls Bowled) Moeen was exceptionally good against the left-handers, bowling 15 of his 24 deliveries to left-handers and scalping 2/11. Varun bowled the right-handers on 14 out of 24 balls and ended up claiming 2/12. They together gave away just 40 runs in eight overs and two boundaries. Compared to this, KKR spinners leaked 111 runs at 9.25 per over. RR's spinners Theekshana and Hasaranga were found expensive, giving away 66 runs in seven overs. They were unable to bowl a single over without conceding a boundary and tended to give away early boundaries, thus making it comfortable for the batters to rotate strike later in the over. Though RR's spin pair bowled a greater proportion of balls in the good length area (64% as against KKR's 52%), their errors were expensive. They bowled 11 short balls, which cost them 25 runs. Hasaranga, especially, was taken to the cleaners by left-hander Quinton de Kock, who hit 21 runs off nine balls against him. Also Read | RR vs KKR: Twitter Goes Wild Over IPL 2025 Thriller RR's Auction Strategy Under Scrutiny Before IPL 2025, RR had one of the leanest budgets, investing 75 of their 79-crore kitty on specialist batters. They were left with fewer choices to strengthen their bowling attack. Their difficulty has been seen early on in the season. In their opening two games, RR's bowling department had given away 286 runs in one match and took just a single wicket in the second. As the season goes along, they will have to devise ways to resolve their bowling crisis if they aim to stay in the hunt.