KKR's title defence shrouded in irony and unwelcome churn

What's new with Kolkata Knight Riders in the new cycle?

Losing your captain right after winning a championship isn't just unthinkable, it's almost reckless.

KKR couldn't quite convince Shreyas Iyer to stay back and the irony of their mega auction was hard to miss. They spent it trying to piece back their title-winning core from 2024, only to step into this next season without the man who led them past the finish line.

Only time will tell how big a miss Shreyas will be, but the team's hopes must now surely rest on the other Iyer, whom they got back at a record expense of INR 23.75 crore. However, if that seemed like a clue to their captaincy pick this season, think again. The job instead went to 36-year-old Ajinkya Rahane, who was fresh off guiding Mumbai to the domestic T20 title while topping the run charts and smashing the ball at a blistering strike rate of 166.

Success, in KKR's case, didn't come cheap. They didn't just lose their captain but also Gautam Gambhir, their mentor who was largely credited for their revival after back-to-back seventh-place finishes. And he didn't leave alone. Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate followed him, hollowing the very core of KKR's think-tank. That, though, opened the assistant-coaching door for Ottis Gibson and the mentoring door for Dwayne Bravo, who is an IPL legend but a KKR outsider, a stark contrast to Gambhir, whose short tenure was built on a deep understanding of the team's ethos as a former captain and player.

Perhaps the mega churn couldn't have come at a worse time for KKR, but it is what it is. What remains unchanged, however, is that they continue to have the most formidable spin attack in the tournament and boast a lower middle order capable of the absolute absurd.

Full Squad

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer (vc), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Quinton de Kock (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Mayank Markande, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia (wk), Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Moeen Ali, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson

The best XII as things stand

Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Injury/Availability Concerns

Fast bowler Umran Malik is out of the season and replaced by Chetan Sakariya, who went unsold at the mega auction and joined KKR as net bowler before eventually being roped into the squad.

Anrich Nortje, meanwhile, is returning from injuries that sidelined him from SA20 as well as the Champions Trophy. While KKR may see him as their bowling spearhead in Mitchell Starc's absence, his immediate availability remains uncertain.

The player with a point to prove is...

Venkatesh Iyer.

He will be the most expensive player in the dugout by over 10 crores, and a vice-captain no less, and the tags will carry their own weight. How Venkatesh responds to it in the pressure cooker of IPL will be fascinating to watch. Fortunately, he has familiarity on his side, KKR being the only franchise he's known.

Venkatesh has been with KKR for four years now and even scored a century, but a true breakthrough season hasn't come. Even when he scored that hundred in 2023, he still didn't finish among the top 15 run-getters of the season. And his bowling returns as an all-rounder are even leaner, with just three wickets, all of them coming in his debut season in 2021.

But perhaps the most telling statistic is around his role in the Impact Player era. Over the last two seasons, he was subbed out in 11 of 26 instances KKR activated the rule, meaning he was on the field for barely half the time. This year, that cannot be the case. The big shoes he must fill aren't someone else's; they are what KKR have carved out for him.

A player who could have a breakout season?

Angkrish Raghuvanshi.

You don't just stroll into your second IPL match, blast 54 off 27 and help your team post what was then the second-highest total in the tournament's history. But that's Raghuvanshi for you, his soft demeanor off the field at odds with the power he can bring to the crease. At 20, he has little to prove, even with a middle-order spot up for grabs and seems to have the license to go all out.

Fixture build-up and run-in...

Unlike 2024, when KKR had five home games on the trot in late April and early May, their itinerary this year involves a lot more trips to the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Airport.

While they start their campaign at home, they don't play more than two on the bounce at Eden Gardens at any point during the season, which could be an issue when it comes to building steam and going for the kill. Notably, their final couple of league matches will be played away in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, so KKR will want to avoid leaving things too late this time around.

A home ground stat to watchout for this season

At Eden Gardens in IPL

Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine have done what few spinners can: hold their own at the Eden Gardens even as the Impact Player rule and rising run-rates have made life tougher at the venue.

The ground, once a haven for slow-low spin in KKR's purple and gold, has become less forgiving since the pitches have flattened out. Suyash Sharma, for instance, lasted just a couple of seasons, a reminder of how difficult it can get. But in Narine and Chakaravarthy, KKR have two spinners who have defied the odds on a ground that's anything but big.

with stats inputs from Deepu Narayanan