The Dark Knights, whose quench for their next championship was finally eased after 10 years, KKR are the defending champions of the upcoming season. A campaign that had contributions from every department and one in which they were on the losing camp only thrice, it is now being discussed amongst the most dominating ones that we have seen in the 17-year history of the tournament.
With confidence and pride running at an all-time high, the City of Joy has her eyes set on the 3 Peat to catch up with a couple of old rivals.
Squad Preview
With this year’s season having an update in the retention policy, which allowed teams to retain as many as 6 players, Shah Rukh’s men made full use of it.
Along with the multiple-time West Indian MVPS, Rinku Singh and Varun Chakravarthy were retained, and Harshit Rana and Ramandeep were kept as the uncapped retentions. This was by far the strongest retained core alongside Mumbai Indians.
Come the auction day, it was evident that Venky Mysore had decided to keep the squad similar to that of 2024.
Angkrish, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Anukuk Roy, Gurbaz, and Venkatesh Iyer were among the players who were bought back. The latter’s purchase amount of 23.75 crores made him the third-costliest player of the 2025 auction.
The next big auction story for the team was the purchase of Ajinkya Rahane. He was purchased within his base price but has been given the captaincy reigns, a move not predicted by the majority. KKR has also secured the services of Quinton De Kock and pacemen Anrich Nortje and Spencer Johnson.
Strengths
Top Finishers: KKR retained Andre Russell, Rinku Singh and Ramandeep, batters who are expected to take care of the business end of their batting, and hence, there’s no surprise as to why they have by far the most stacked in this phase. Russell and Ramandeep’s career strike rates are amongst the best in tournament history, whereas Rinku showed tremendous potential in the 2023 season.
Given that Russell and Ramandeep have no issues in taking on the spinners either, it’s hard to find a weakness against the entire trio.
Mystery Spinners: Sunil and Varun have been playing together ever since the 2020 season, and each year, at the very least, one of them has risen up to the occasion. The pair was at its best in the 2024 season where both of them were clearly the best spinners of the series and were probably also the 2nd and 3rd best bowlers.
Whereas Varun is a wicket-taking threat in the middle overs with his multiple variations, Narine has mastered the art of run-stopping and is a potential option at the death.
Weaknesses
Shaky Middle-Order: Apart from the marquee purchase of Venky Iyer, the Knight’s middle order isn’t as solid as the rest of the team.
On one end, you have Raghuvanshi, who has immense potential but hasn’t yet proven himself at the big stages and also someone who is used to the opening spot in youth games. Whereas on the other hand, Captain Rahane has age on his side, but his only good IPL season in the past five years has been the 2023 one.
Even someone like Rinku has had his issues with strike rotation, so the onus seems to be on Venkatesh to keep the ship bonded together.
Top-order struggles against spin: De Kock and Narine are the most likely opening pair, at least for the starting few games, and both have had their issues against spin (See the Matchup Sheet for better understanding)
De Kock’s overall numbers take a plunge against them, and although Narine can decimate a spinner on his given day, he is equally volatile against them, averaging 14,11,15 and 5, respectively, against the various types of spin.
