KKR will be aiming to add a fourth star to their jersey.
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will have a task cut out when they begin their campaign in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL 2025). The three-time winners will be aiming to defend their title and add a fourth star to their jersey.
With such high stakes, KKR will bank on some of their best players to get the job done. Over the years, KKR has boasted of several match-winners and game-changers and the current squad also has some heavyweight names.
Let’s take a look at four such players who will be crucial for KKR’s success in IPL 2025.
Retained by KKR for INR 12 crores ahead of the mega auction, Sunil Narine will be entering his 13th year with the franchise. He has been a part of KKR’s all three title wins and was phenomenal last season too. The former West Indies cricketer opened the innings with his fiery batting, amassing 488 runs and was amongst the Top 10 highest run-getters last season. With the ball, Narine contributed with 17 scalps.
Varun Chakravarthy will be another marquee name in the KKR playing XI. He has been brilliant for KKR and was instrumental in their title-winning campaign last year. His magical bowling also saw the wrist spinner get a call-up to the Indian team for the recent Champions Trophy 2025, where he finished as the second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament.
Varun is a genuine wicket-taking option and can provide big breakthroughs. The 33-year-old’s abilities will thus be extremely crucial if KKR have to defend their title successfully this season.
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This name needs no introduction. His name has become synonymous with KKR, Like Sunil Narine, Andre Russell is another KKR star who has been with the franchise for over a decade. The Jamaican all-rounder is a match-winner in the truest sense of the word and has time and again, rescued KKR from impossible scenarios.
He starred last season with both the bat and the ball. Dre Russ scored 222 runs at a fiery strike rate of 185 while picking up an impressive 19 wickets. Whether he’s taking the new ball to open the bowling or stepping up in the final overs to seal the game with his batting, Russell’s expertise and skill set are unmatched in today’s T20 cricket.
The left-handed batter, who occasionally bowls medium pace, secured a massive INR 23.75 crore payday during the mega auction, which is over 11 times his base price. KKR fiercely competed with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in a bidding war, ultimately using their Right-to-Match (RTM) card to bring him back to their squad.
KKR know he’s their most clutch player, having scored fifties in every knockout match he has played and has thus put further faith in him by announcing him as the team’s vice-captain in this high-stakes season.
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