Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders is the current IPL champion who will give everything to try and defend its title in 2025. In terms of the most trophies, this team is only behind Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. They possess certain strengths that allow them to compete with the best every season. Here are the main ones.

On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders also feature a few weaknesses that can cause trouble during the season. The ones that are worth mentioning are the following:

For this season, the team will most likely rely on several key players as a way to become defending champions. Those cricketers are Rinku Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, and Varun Chakravarthy.

Historical Performance

The Knight Riders started out in January 2008 with the establishment of the IPL. They play their home matches at the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

There’s a lot of publicity involved with this team due to its association with its celebrity owners. Among them are Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla, her husband Jay Mehta, and actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Kolkata played all 17 IPL seasons and managed to qualify for the playoffs 8 times. The team successfully booked a final on half of those occasions. During these big matches, the Knight Riders lost only once in 2021. Their 3 IPL triumphs came in 2012, 2014, and 2024. This puts them in the 3rd spot in terms of the most league titles.

It’s worth noting that Kolkata holds the record for the most consecutive wins in the IPL. They successfully won 14 matches in a row in 2014, including the quarter-final and final.

The all-time leading run-scorer of the Knight Riders is Gautam Gambhir. During his 7 years at the club, he accumulated a total of 3,397 runs. As for the leading wicket taker that title goes to Sunil Narine. This player has accomplished 180 wickets in 177 IPL matches since 2012.

Kolkata Knight Riders in Recent Seasons

In the past 5 IPL seasons, Kolkata had some positive and negative moments. The 2020 campaign was very unlucky for them as they failed to qualify for the playoffs. They ended in 5th place with equal points as the Sunrisers and the Royal Challengers in 3rd and 4th spot. All of it was due to their worse net run rate.

The following year, the Knight Riders accumulated the same number of points. But, this time they did enter the playoffs as they finished in 4th position. This team proceeded with the competition by winning against the Royal Challengers in the quarter-finals. However, they lost to Delhi Capitals in the semi-finals.

Things weren’t going very well for the team in the 2022 IPL season. As a result of their poor performances, they only won 12 points from 14 matches. This made them settle for the 7th spot. Additionally, they were 4 points short of qualifying for the playoffs.

The same thing happened once again in the 2023 season. Kolkata had the exact number of points and ended in the same 7th position. After failing to qualify for the quarter-finals two seasons in a row, the club decided to make some serious changes.

It turned out to be the right decision, as Kolkata Knight Riders finished the group stage in 1st place. They won 9 matches and got 2 events with no result, which accumulated to 20 points.

In the quarter-finals, they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets. Both teams met in the final once more, where the Knight Riders were once better by 8 wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders Players 2025

The Kolkata Knight Riders squad 2025 holds 12 retained and 9 new players. This team decided to hold on to most of their previous cricketers as they were crucial for winning the 2024 IPL title. Below we’ll disclose and briefly describe each player part of the 2025 team list.

Batters

Kolkata decided to retain 4 of its previous batters and sign only one additional player. This shows its outstanding trust in its cricketers for the upcoming season. Here are the featured batters who you should know about:

• Rinku Singh – A 27-year-old left-handed middle-order batter who has played for the team since 2018. During his career, he managed to make 893 runs, averaging 30.79. His best season was in 2023 when he got 474 runs.
• Ajinkya Rahane – This is a newly signed and highly experienced right-handed batter. He was previously part of the team for the 2022 IPL season. In his career, Rahane has won the 2023 IPL and 2016 Asia Cup and made 4,642 runs.
• Angkrish Raghuvanshi – A right-handed batting youngster who joined the Knight Riders in 2023, but started playing in 2024. Since then, he has achieved 163 runs in 10 games, averaging 23.29. Those aren’t the best stats, but he did help the team win the IPL.
• Manish Pandey – A 35-year-old top-order batter who has played for the team since last season. However, he only appeared in one match where he scored 42 runs. Hopefully, he’ll get more minutes this year.

Wicket-Keepers

There are some changes made in the wicket-keeper selection for the 2025 IPL season. The Knight Riders decided to keep hold of only one past player and part ways with 2. But, they also signed 2 additional wicket-keepers. You can check them out below this segment.

• Rahmanullah Gurbaz – This is a wicket-keeper batter who acted as a backup for the Knight Riders last season. He’s the first Afghan batsman to debut with a century in an ODI match.
• Quinton de Kock – A well-known South African cricketer who many see as the best wicket-keeper of his generation. This is his first season with Kolkata after playing for several other IPL teams in the past.
• Luvnith Sisodia – Another new left-handed wicket-keeper who will act as a backup for the 2025 season. This 25-year-old cricketer is still waiting on his debut and hopefully will get it this year.

All-Rounders

This team acquired 2 new all-rounders and retained 4 well-proven players for the upcoming season. Here are the featured cricketers who can play as batters and bowlers for Kolkata Knight Riders:

• Andre Russell – A key player who represented the team since 2014. He plays as a right-handed batter and right-arm fast pace bowler. Russell helped the club win its last 2 IPL titles.
• Venkatesh Iyer – Another top all-rounder who plays as a left-handed batter and right-arm medium bowler. He played 50 matches in 5 seasons for the Knight Riders, achieving 1,326 runs and only 3 wickets.
• Ramandeep Singh – This all-rounder was part of the 2024 IPL winning team where he got 125 runs. He’s a right-handed middle-order batter and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. Previously, he spent two seasons with Mumbai Indians.
• Rovman Powell – One of Kolkata’s new players who prefers right-handed middle-order batting and right-arm medium-fast bowling. This West Indies cricketer was also part of the club between 2017 and 2019 but failed to make an appearance.
• Anukul Roy – This all-rounder is ready for this 4th season with the club where he currently acts as a backup. He plays as a left-handed batter and slow left-arm orthodox bowler.
• Moeen Ali – A legendary and highly experienced English all-rounder who joined the club in November 2024. He acts as a left-handed batter and right-arm off-break bowler. In the past, he won 2 IPLs, one Cricket World Cup, and one T20 World Cup.

Bowlers

Now, it is time to reveal the Kolkata Knight Riders players 2025 who are responsible for bowling balls. There are a total of 8 such cricketers, half of them are new faces and the other half are retained players. Here’s the full list of bowlers:

• Anrich Nortje – Kolkata’s newly signed South African right-arm fast bowler who previously played for the Delhi Capitals. He’s ready to increase the competitiveness in the squad and try to win his first IPL title.
• Harshit Rana – A young right-arm fast bowler who’s been at the club since 2022. He started out as a backup but is slowly becoming a regular for the Knight Riders.
• Spencer Johnson – This is another newly acquired player who plays as a left-arm fast bowler. He’s a past Gujarat Titans player and a current Australian international who hasn’t won the IPL so far.
• Vaibhav Arora – A 27-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler who’s playing for the Knight Riders since 2021, with the exception of 2022. He’s another backup cricketer who’s starting to get more and more playing time.
• Umran Malik – The Knight Riders’ new right-arm fast bowler who joined from the Sunrisers Hyderabad. In his previous club, he acted as a backup and achieved 29 wickets in 26 matches.
• Sunil Narine – The longest-serving player in the current squad who’s actively playing since 2012. He holds the most wickets (180) in the team’s history and has 3 IPL titles to his name.
• Varun Chakravarthy – A key right-arm leg-break bowler who signed for Kolkata in 2020. So far, they accumulated a total of 82 wickets in 71 matches. Last season, he helped his team win the league with 21 wickets.
• Mayank Markande – Yet another newly-signed right-arm leg-break bowler who will act as an additional backup player. His current career stats feature 37 wickets in 37 matches.

Kolkata Knight Riders Captain

As a skipper of the national team, he managed to lose only one match. Rahane is also the current captain of Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy.

The last potential skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders is 36-year-old Sunil Narine. He’s been part of the club since 2012 during which he won 3 IPL titles. The needed experience and knowledge are there, but does he have the ability to lead a top team like this?

Kolkata Knight Riders Rivals

Kolkata Knight Riders have 2 main rivals in the IPL. The first one is Mumbai Indians, which, together with Chennai Super Kings, is the most successful team with 5 titles. But, before getting their 3rd victory, the Indians and the Knight Riders had 2 trophies each.

They met in the IPL on 34 occasions where the Knight Riders won 11 and lost 23 matches. However, in the last 4 seasons, Kolkata got 5 wins while Mumbai achieved only 2 victories. But, it’s worth noting that the Indians had an 8-match winning streak from 2015 to 2018.

The second fierce rival that’s worth mentioning is the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. This is one of the oldest rivalries in the IPL dating back to the first edition of the competition. Fans and media refer to it as the “El Primero” of the Indian Premier League.

Things got super intense during the 2013 season when Gautam Gambhir had a verbal conflict with Virat Kohli. The rivalry remained at a higher level even after the team decided to part ways with Gambhir.

Both teams played a total of 34 matches against each other. The Knight Riders were more successful as they won 20 while the Royal Challengers got 14 victories.