All the teams will have to readjust and renew their strategies for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will need to stress on it even more than the other franchises as they are not the same team for the new season besides few major retentions.
They no longer have their inspirational captain Shreyas Iyer this season after letting him go to Punjab Kings in the November auction. They have also let go off a prized asset like Nitish Rana who played for the franchise for seven straight seasons. Despite the two major departures, KKR still have plenty of riches in each department as they gear up for a successful title defence.
Here are three decisions they need to make with the starting XI
KKR weren’t able to get swashbuckling opener Phil Salt back in the auction, but they managed to secure the services of Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, South African keeper-batter Quinton de Kock and broke the bank for Venkatesh Iyer to retain him for a dizzying price of INR 23.75 crore.
Then they also have Sunil Narine, who lit up the IPL 2024 in the opening role with 488 runs from 14 innings at a superb strike rate of 180. Gurbaz also opens the innings for Afghanistan and most of the franchises he plays around the world. With so many great options, all three batters have played more than 100 T20 matches as an opener and scored a minimum of 2,500 runs in that position.
De Kock has the lowest strike rates among the trio with 138 but his consistency is unmatched having scored 9,583 at the top. Narine is a useful batter to have at any position so it’s better to have him as a floater and use De Kock and Gurbaz as the opening pair.
KKR have a wide range of skillsets either it be Ajinkya Rahane’s steady-scoring approach or the all guns blazing method applied by Rinku Singh. They used a flexible batting line-up strategy last season to great effect. Last season, only Phil Salt and Narine were the only fixed slots for opening and rest of them walked in according to the situation.
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Currently they have Rahane in place of Shreyas Iyer who can toggle between No 3, 4 and 5 while Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Venkatesh Iyer also capable of playing in those spots. Rinku and Russell, can also produce dividends if they are sent in according to the 1 vs 1 strategies like last year.
KKR are stacked with pace-bowling riches with Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Andre Russell, Mayank Markande and Umran Malik. While Rana and Arora will most likely be the new-ball bowlers, it would be wise to bring in Spencer Johnson for the middle and death overs quota.
The Australian left-armer is probably the best option to have when you dont have Mitchell Starc as he can swing the old ball and utilises his towering height to fire toecrushers at will. In the recent Big Bash League 2024-25, Johnson maintained an economy under 9 while bowling eight overs at the death in seven matches for Brisbane Heat.
He had a decent start to his IPL career last season having played five matches for Gujarat Titans and claiming four wickets. The management can gauge his performances based on the Champions Trophy, which is his first major international tournament in sub-continental conditions.
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