The first three balls of the 17th over made for an engaging battle between a seasoned T20 batter and a pace bowler about a decade junior. Heinrich Klaasen had premeditated a full ball, and rightly so. Out came a low full toss from Kartik Tyagi, Klaasen tried a wildly audacious reverse scoop, and missed. Narrowly. An inch further to the right and his off stump would have been flying.

Klaasen looked disgusted with himself. At that point, he was on 34 off 28, just two fours off his bat thus far. Against the rookie quick, Klaasen wanted to take his chances. Next ball, he stubbornly brought out the reverse scoop again, and it worked. The ball clanked off his bat and flew over the third-man fence for a maximum. Klaasen did a bit of a relieved head tilt, as if to tell himself, that's how it's done.

He was ready for a hat-trick, but Tyagi pulled out of his run-up, having seen Klaasen shape up for a double encore scoop.

On Thursday, that remained the only six in Kolkata from Klaasen, known to be somewhat of a six-hitting machine. It was the first time Klaasen has hit just one of those in his 10 fifty-plus in the IPL. Against KKR, this was his third-lowest strike rate in an innings (148.57) - that's the level he has operated at against them before.

A quick glance at the scorecard would make you feel that Klaasen did his usual middle-order counterpunch, carrying SRH to a winning total. That he has an exceptional record against KKR is buoyed by his past showings against their spin duo. And, out of his last 20 IPL innings, 18 have been in double-digits.

But this wasn't close to the best we have seen of Klaasen and it does point to a few cracks that are starting to appear in his gold-standard T20 pedigree.

Firstly, Klaasen doesn't play as often as he used to. He has retired from internationals: the 2024 T20 World Cup final, where he almost pulled it off, feels like from a different era. Since his international retirement, he has featured in the MLC, the Hundred, and the CSA T20 Challenge, and the SA20. And, since the SA20, Klaasen had a two-month gap before he padded up to face RCB in this IPL's opener.

That rustiness could be playing a part. The SA20, too, wasn't his finest: he struck at 128.97 from seven innings, managing a best of 29. At the Hundred, he struck at 112.68 from eight innings. In the MLC, he struck at 136.53 but had six single-digit scores out of 10, and crossed 30 just once.

What compounds it is his role at SRH: the focus has largely been on the Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma opening pairing, with Klaasen often batting with the Indian domestic unit. At the Seattle Orcas, he had Shimron Hetmyer and Sikandar Raza around him. At Sunrisers Eastern Cape, he had Jos Buttler and Aiden Markram before him, with Liam Livingstone to follow. In the IPL, Klaasen is expected to be SRH's one-stop middle-order solution.

It reflects in his stature within the camp too, not just as a mentor to the younger ones, but his position in overall finances. He was retained for INR 23 crore, which is a big investment in a 34-year-old, retired internationally, and not operating at his optimal in the leagues he plays.

His peak - not too far back in time - was quite the standout. Between the start of 2023 and 2025, Klaasen hit the most T20 runs by anyone in the middle order (2137), striking at 164.13. Since then, it has dropped to 140.12. Since 2024, he still has the second-best strike rate against spin in IPL (minimum 175 balls).

Most runs against spin since 2025 (min. 175 balls)

Against KKR on Thursday, he got the job done for SRH but there was a visible lack of fluency, crucially against spinners.

Klaasen, who has the second-best strike rate against Sunil Narine in IPL (minimum 20 balls), hit two fours in an over of him: one a lofted drive, and the other, a sweep. But he was wound down by Anukul Roy, managing just eight off seven balls, as the spinner kept targeting the wide, outside-off channel. He faced only three balls of Varun Chakaravarthy, against whom his strike rate was 211.32 coming into the game. The famed pulls off the backfoot, which were a rage during his prime, were nowhere to be seen.

One can argue that the approach could have been necessitated by SRH's position: at 118/4 in 9.2 overs, they could well have imploded, with Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey and Shivang Kumar - a combined experience of five IPL games - to follow.

Nitish Kumar Reddy, along with whom Klaasen stitched the crucial 82-run stand, later admitted the wicket was a bit two-paced, with the ball rushing or sticking to the surface when the slower bouncers were bowled. But Klaasen's experienced head helped him navigate through it, admitting he "really enjoys batting alongside him", and has benefited from the insights shared by Klaasen in those specific match situations.

"I know I am just young, and he has had success in the T20 side," Reddy said. "Sometimes, you have to listen to your senior who has already been there in that situation. One side (of the ground) is pretty big, one is small, the bowlers are trying to use this. We were saying bowlers will miss those lines, and we will capitalise on the poor balls".

The two-paced nature of the pitch probably played a part. Even as the final over came about, Klaasen didn't look particularly fluid, even if he was effective. He dragged a slower one from the toe of his bat to the long-on fence, smiling at Reddy as if to say "I'll take it". A full-toss was then taken from outside off and pulled to the square-leg boundary. Earlier in the over, he golf-clubbed the ball down the ground, only to land between two converging fielders. He fell trying the same thing towards deep midwicket.

SRH's next game is in three days, which doesn't give the team much breathing room. But the familiar home turf (he strikes at 182.73 in Hyderabad) could be the best way to get back into his groove. It's imperative for SRH's fortunes that he finds that verve soon: between their top-heavy batting and their imbalanced bowling attack, they need the brutality and reliance of Klaasen. Importantly, this season could also dictate his own future with the franchise.