Captain Ajinkya Rahane’s focus was on the very few positives the Kolkata Knight Riders have had in this IPL. They certainly fared well in the second half of the league phase, winning six of their last eight games.
Yet, what remains on record is their seventh-place finish. To sum up, since their third IPL crown in 2024, KKR haven’t even finished among the top five in the tournament. There are several reasons for yet another disappointing campaign. Here are some of them:
Mustafizur absence
Missing Mustafizur Rahman due to entirely political reasons was obviously unfortunate for the Knights, which their CEO Venky Mysore acknowledged recently. Mustafizur’s experience and credentials in white-ball cricket could well have made a difference for the Knights.
In the Bangladeshi pacer’s place, they brought in Zimbabwean Blessing Muzarabani, who couldn’t fit into the team’s scheme combination-wise.
Wounded unit
The back and knee injuries to quicks Akash Deep and Harshit Rana, respectively, had weakened the pace attack further. The replacements of Akash and Harshit, Saurabh Dubey and Navdeep Saini, clearly didn’t inspire enough confidence in KKR, given the limited game time the two pacers had.
Right through, the Knights had to overtly rely on their spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy due to their thin pace resources. Making matters worse for them were the two fractures Varun suffered, which forced him to miss the home game against Lucknow Super Giants and the clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur. In both those defeats, Varun’s services were badly missed.
Wrong investment?
The Knights had shelled out as much as ₹18 crore at the last auction to get Matheesha Pathirana on board. But the Sri Lankan pacer, sustaining a calf-muscle strain during this year’s T20 World Cup, could bowl only 1.2 overs this season before being ruled out with a hamstring injury.
Pathirana completed his recovery process after joining the KKR squad late last month, following approval from Sri Lanka Cricket. But according to KKR sources, Pathirana’s recovery back home “wasn’t ideal” in the first place.
That loss to LSG
KKR had the home game against Super Giants in their grasp when the visitors were seven down and still needed 54 off the last 24 balls. Yet, their bowlers couldn’t defend those runs, as the little-known Mukul Choudhary stole the match from KKR with an unbeaten 27-ball 54. After that game, Mukul hardly had any success, which further reflects the botch-up from KKR’s bowlers.
Green on & off
The Knights roped in Cameron Green at an exorbitant price, thinking the Australian seamer all-rounder would go on to be an ideal replacement for Andre Russell. But barring his two 50-plus scores against Gujarat Titans, Green wasn’t too consistent, with his finishing ability way short of the impact Russell would have had.
Way forward
Will Rahane continue as captain? That’s the first question that would come to mind when KKR reassemble for IPL 2027. Given his performance this year, it will be very surprising if Rahane even retains his place in the team.
His inability to produce big strokes after the Powerplay hurt KKR. His failures robbed the team of good starts.
The franchise also needs to be careful about the players it wants to retain and release ahead of the next edition. A detailed homework going into the auction on players’ injuries and who all are injury prone would help.