KKR trust in continuity in bid to defend 2024 title

How Rahane slots into their XI, and how 36-year-olds Narine and Russell perform, could make or break their season

15-Mar-2025

Chopra: Rahane could face 'captain-batter conflict'

Where they finished last year

Champions. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) topped the league table with nine wins, three losses and two points from washouts. They beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 1 and then, with Mitchell Starc rampant with the new ball, won the final and sealed their third IPL title.

What's new in 2025?

Ajinkya Rahane, the new captain, will slot into one of the spaces left open by the outgoing Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana, while new buy Quinton de Kock is a quality replacement for Phil Salt. The overseas bench looks strong with Rahmanullah Gurbaz as the back-up opener and fresh picks Moeen Ali and Rovman Powell bringing power and versatility.

Starc has a like-for-like replacement, at least in terms of bowling role, in Australia left-arm swing bowler Spencer Johnson, who made his IPL debut with Gujarat Titans last season. Anrich Nortje is a more experienced candidate for the overseas seamer's spot.

Off the field, too, there's a new look. Gautam Gambhir's crew is gone, and mentor Dwayne Bravo and assistant coach Ottis Gibson are the new additions. Rahane joins hands with Chandrakant Pandit, his former coach in domestic cricket.

With Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Andre Russell in the lower middle order, KKR remain among the most dangerous death-overs teams and they would expect Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana to build on from their recent international form with the ball.

Likely best XII

1 Sunil Narine*, 2 Quinton de Kock* (wk), 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 5 Venkatesh Iyer, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Andre Russell*, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Spencer Johnson/Anrich Nortje*, 11 Varun Chakravarthy, 12 Vaibhav Arora
* denotes overseas player

Full KKR squad

Big Question
Overseas picks: Narine, Russell and who?
6.3K votes
de Kock, Spencer
de Kock, Nortje
Gurbaz, Spencer
Gurbaz, Nortje
Watch out for
Can Ajinkya Rahane carry forward his Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy form from December? His ranking as the tournament's top scorer was impressive and his strike-rate of 164.56 stood out too. In IPL 2023, he was a brilliant bridge between the openers and middle order at Chennai Super Kings, and KKR would want that version of Rahane this season.
Sunil Narine and Andre Russell come into the tournament not in the best of form, with below-par performances with the bat in the ILT20 in January-February. Narine has also gone wicketless in six of his last ten T20s, although he conceded more than 24 only four times. KKR retained the two high-impact 36-year-olds and trust the pair to turn up in the big moments, but can they keep doing it season after season?
Luvnith Sisodia, the wicketkeeper-batter from Karnataka, could also be a left-field option up top. That could make space for Moeen or Powell. KKR have taken their chances with young, exciting domestic cricketers in their past, and Sisodia had a terrific Maharaja T20 Trophy run with semi-finalists Gulbarga Mystics.
Key stats

Andre Russell was a star with the ball last season, with 19 wickets in only 29.2 overs for a strike rate of 9.2. But in T20s after IPL 2024, in the 66.5 overs he has bowled, Russell has taken only 17 wickets with a strike rate of 23.5. With Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora as their main Indian quick bowlers, Spencer Johnson not quite experienced enough, and Anrich Nortje returning from injury, Russell will need to do a lot.
KKR had the best spin attack by far in IPL 2024, and they have retained it for 2025. Their 38 wickets last season was eight ahead of the second-best team and their average (23.18) was the best by a distance too, with their economy rate (7.68) behind that of only Chennai Super Kings' spinners.
Quinton de Kock has scored 500-plus runs in three IPL seasons, and his team has gone into the playoffs each time, with Mumbai Indians winning twice in 2019 and 2020. But IPL 2024 was his worst since 2014, bringing him only 250 runs in 11 outings for Lucknow Super Giants at an average of 22.72.
Who's out or in doubt?
A fully-fit Nortje can hit the high 140s (kph), but he has only just recovered from a back injury. He missed the SA20 and Champions Trophy competitions, and last played a game in December 2024.
Another quick, Umran Malik was ruled out with a hip injury, and he's been replaced with Chetan Sakariya.

Ajinkya Rahane Sunil Narine Andre Russell Luvnith Sisodia Kolkata Knight Riders Indian Premier League

Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx