Kolkata Knight Riders are the third most successful IPL franchise but their 2025 season was a bit of a disaster. They finished eighth on the points table, losing seven of the completed 12 fixtures. The underperformance was all the more shocking because it came on the heels of a triumphant campaign that saw Sunrisers Hyderabad, the serial 200 crossers, go down in the final. An opening malaise was largely to blame as they were the only franchise last year sans a half-century stand for the first wicket, although the decision to let go of successful captain Shreyas Iyer doesn’t fall behind too much.
His departure also left a hole in the middle-order that was exacerbated by the misfiring Venkatesh Iyer, whom Kolkata Knight Riders broke the bank for. He returned 142 runs in 11 innings, a strong deviation from his theme of regular contributions in the past. It put pressure on Rinku Singh and Andre Russell in turn, concluding a chain reaction that was triggered by the experiment of pairing Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine at the top. Ajinkya Rahane, the skipper with a redefined power game, was the lone saving grace with an aggregate of 390. The jury is out on whether he bats at one drop since Angkrish Raghuvanshi notched up an ebullient hundred in the intra-squad game following a lean patch in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. “Don’t be surprised if he shoots the lights out this IPL,” assistant coach Shane Watson hyped up the youngster.
In a broader context as well, the structure of the batting line-up is a subject of keen interest. Both Finn Allen and Tim Seifert cannot play, with Narine, Matheesha Pathirana and Cameron Green taking up the three overseas slots presuming the Sri Lankan’s availability from mid-April. If Kolkata Knight Riders drift away from their plan of using Narine as an enforcer, there is a bevy of right-handers at the top which incentivizes oppositions to employ goofy combinations like a left-arm spinner or leg-break. Rachin Ravindra’s inclusion can offset this problem, but again the shape of the eleven boils down to the permutation they feel confident with, especially with respect to their foreign talent.
Mustafizur Rahman has been deemed ineligible to participate owing to the strained relations between India and Bangladesh, with Zimbabwe quick Blessing Muzarabani drafted in as replacement. Allen’s 33-ball century in the T20 World Cup semifinal, at Eden Gardens of all venues, plumps his case for selection but he isn’t proficient with glovework, a role on-song Tim Seifert or Raghuvanshi will have to assume. Australian all-rounder Green was earmarked as a top-tier asset to reinforce their squad, making him the highest-paid overseas cricketer in IPL history. Rovman Powell was retained in the backdrop of Russell’s exit, and the way Sarthak Ranjan and Ramandeep Singh are tonking the ball it is safe to say that there’s no shortage of firepower at the back end.
Too much action to miss even a frame 😌 pic.twitter.com/sxQDlsAUP1
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 25, 2026
Another member of the set-up who is catching the eye at practice is pacer Kartik Tyagi. His dovetailing with Rahman to defend 8 off 12 for Rajasthan Royals against Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran ought to be vivid in the memory of IPL watchers. As Harshit Rana and Akash Deep are out on the sidelines, Kartik would be the ideal substitute for leveraging the extra bounce at their home ground. “The good thing about Indian cricket, especially at the moment, is that there is a lot of depth. They are young, exciting talents,’’ Dwayne Bravo spoke of the domestic roster which features Umran Malik, Saurabh Dubey and Vaibhav Arora. In the spin department, Kolkata Knight Riders will bank on weapons Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. Across IPL 2024 and 2025, they had the best economy (7.74), best strike-rate (18.6) and best average (24.02) among spin-bowling units.
An IPL regular for eight years now, Anukul Roy would hope to add to his dozen appearances years owing to his growing stature in the Jharkhand team. He remained unbeaten on 95 off 58 balls to get the job done from a precarious position of 105/6 after 13 overs chasing 158 against Karnataka. ‘’It is possible that I get more chances as an impact player,’’ feels Anukul whose four-year stay at Kolkata Knight Riders has been overshadowed by their inimitable spin twins. His batchmates in an U-19 Indian powerhouse were Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Riyan Parag and Abhishek Sharma, all of whom have carved solid IPL and international careers. Having a point to prove, the southpaw has had plenty of chats with the head coach, Abhishek Nayar, centred on range-hitting. A floater to snap the right-handed monotony? A finer left-arm orthodox than Ravindra? Time will tell if Anukul is rewarded for his patience.
Similarly, Manish Pandey and Rahul Tripathi would fancy more game-time after being in and out of contention for different teams over the years. In case of close selection calls fielding gives them the edge, as evinced by the breathtaking catches in the warm-ups. In a recent interview Pandey was quizzed about what went wrong for Kolkata Knight Riders last season, and his answer was patchiness in either department. Take, for instance, their shambolic collapse from 62/2 to 95 all out in New Chandigarh in pursuit of a very manageable 112. Tripathi and Pandey have enough miles under their legs to fill in those blanks in the absence of anchor Shreyas.
Kolkata Knight Riders splurged 18 crores on slinger Pathirana at the auction, and await a no-objection certificate from his board upon clearance of fitness tests. A death-overs specialist, he thrived at Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2024, bagging 13 wickets at an economy rate of 7.68 including a match-winning 4/28 against Mumbai Indians. In Pallekelle versus England, the 23-year-old produced figures of 1/18 in his full quota on an anodyne pitch. He ran the gamut from yorkers, 148kph thunderbolts, cutters on a length to spicy bumpers. Even more impressive was the fact that he bowled two of his overs inside the PowerPlay. His comeback is key for Kolkata Knight Riders as on paper, their bowling lacks the heft that their batting now carries.
