After a decade, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will start the Tata-IPL-18 as the defending champion and a contender. The Shah Rukh Khan-owned team is one of three that has won the league more than once—the other two being five-time winners Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings (CSK)—and hence, it will start the league with big hopes of winning the title for the fourth time.
With a high-profile support staff, and the choices made at the player auctions over the years, the Kolkata-based franchise team has finished as runner-up once and entered the playoffs four times. Its legion of followers would have been much happier if their team had ended the league with more title wins in the last seventeen seasons.
Any IPL match featuring the Knight Riders - across the many venues in India - has always proved to be a big draw, especially when Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan is in attendance. The terrific flavour and energy the side has brought to the field of action have enabled it to win 131 of the 252 matches it has played, with a success percentage close to 52.
After a gap of ten seasons, the Knight Riders won the big prize last season, defeating the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. There was a noticeable change in the team's approach with the appointment of Gautam Gambhir as the mentor. He had played/ led the franchise 108 times for seven seasons from 2011 to 2017. Gambhir, as captain, had won 61 matches and led the team to title wins in 2012 and 2014. He was the Head Coach of the Lucknow Super Giants for two seasons (2022 and 2023) before moving to Kolkata.
The Knight Riders won the title last year because of a significant change in the approach of its opening pair: Englishman Phil Salt and the off-spinner converted into an opener, Trinidadian Sunil Narine. The pair made 559 runs, 23.40 per cent of the team's score in 12 matches/innings. Narine made 488 runs, and Salt 435 runs.
Narine's free-flowing batting also contributed to the second-wicket partnerships, with him and Angkrish Raghuvanshi raising 349 runs, which translated into 28 percent of the team score.
After a one-season break, Shreyas Iyer returned to lead the side. He made 351 runs, 214 at No.4. Venkatesh Iyer made 370 at Nos. 3 and 5. Andre Russell made 222 at a scoring rate of 11.10 an over. The team scored 2481 runs with the bat.
More significantly, the Knight Riders' bowling department delivered the goods with the pace pack in Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Russel and Vainhav Arora taking 66 wickets and the spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Narine collecting 38 wickets.
The Knight Riders won 11 of the 15 games they played last season, including the final. They found the right balance on most occasions. Can it repeat the show in 2025?
To start with, the champion team retained six players: Rinku Singh, Chakravarthy, Narine, Harshit Rana, Russell, and Ramandeep Singh for a total of Rs.67 crore, but the most significant calls it took were of Shreyas Iyer and Starc. The franchise did not retain them.
However, it spent Rs.23.75 crore at the auction on Venkatesh Iyer. The franchise also bought batters Ajinkya Rahane, Quinton De Kock (also wicketkeeper), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (also wicketkeeper), Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, all-rounders Ankul Roy and Moeen Ali, and fast bowlers Anrich Nortje, Umran Malik, Spencer Johnson, and Mayank Markande.
The Knight Riders have named Rahane captain for the season and Venkatesh Iyer, deputy. They had made a bid for Rahane at Rs.1.5 crore. The Mumbaikar, out of the India scheme of things, has led Mumbai with distinction and has 185-match IPL experience with Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Rising Pune Supergiants, Delhi Capitals, and Chennai Super Kings. In the 2022 season, he played seven matches for the Kolkata side.
Rahane is a sober person and not a showman. However, his cricketing credentials are excellent, and it will be interesting to see how he works with head coach Chandrakant Pandit.
The Knight Riders would most likely continue with Narine as an opener and De Kock, a 107-match IPL veteran and left-hander, as the second opener. Narine, De Kock, Russell, and South African fast bowler Antich Nortje could be the first-choice overseas players for the first match against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Eden Gardens on March 22.
The last year's winner may not have Salt and Shreyas Iyer in its batting ranks, but it has done well to pick De Kock to go after the new ball in the first six-over powerplay.
The Knight Riders' top wicket-takers in the league are Narine (180), Russell (114) and Chakravarthy (82), and all three have been retained. Fast bowler Harshit Rana is sure to start, and so should Nortje. The team has an option in Vaibhav Arora, who has worked with the team's bowling coach Bharat Arun. He would also gain by picking the brains of mentor Dwayne Bravo. Others in the pace department are Umran Malik, Mayank Markande and the Australian left-hand fast bowler Spencer Johnson, who has to be seen as a replacement for Starc. Spencer has been a force in the Australian Big Bash League. Among the spinners, the Knight Riders have England's Moeen Ali and left-hand spinner Ankul Roy.
Published: 13 Mar 2025, 04:57 pm IST
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