3 IPL teams who should consider signing Finn Allen for the 2026 season ft. Kolkata Knight Riders 

New Zealand opening batter Finn Allen set the 2025 Major League Cricket (MLC) alight with his exceptional hundred for the San Francisco Unicorns in the opening match of the season against the defending champions, Washington Freedom, in California. The right-handed batter struck 151 runs off just 51 deliveries, which included a record 19 sixes as SFU won by a massive 123-run margin.

He breached Chris Gayle's record of 18 sixes in the whirlwind show at the Oakland Coliseum. His efforts guided the team to a mammoth total of 269-5.

Despite being New Zealand's first-choice opening batter in T20Is, and a routine name in franchise cricket, Allen has surprisingly been unable to make his mark in the IPL. The 26-year-old has played 153 T20 matches with a brilliant strike rate of 173.27, but an IPL appearance continues to elude him.

Allen was part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) setup after coming in as a replacement for Josh Phillipe in 2021, before being acquired in the 2022 auction. However, with the likes of Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Faf du Plessis, and Anuj Rawat taking up the opening slots, the Blackcaps star was sidelined throughout, before being released.

On that note, let us take a look at three IPL teams who should consider signing Finn Allen for the 2026 season.

#1 Kolkata Knight Riders

The three-time winners are in desperate need to hit the reset button in their opening department. Not so long ago, they had a winning combination of Sunil Narine and Phil Salt that played a pivotal role in the 2024 triumph. However, they struggled in the department in 2025 after Narine's dip in form and Salt's release.

Narine's concerning numbers at the top of the order since the last several tournaments is a concrete reason as to why he must be moved away from the opening role. With both Quinton de Kock and Rahmanullah Gurbaz also failing to impress, it is inevitable that KKR will be prioritising a new opening batter during the 2026 IPL mini-auction.

Allen fits the bill despite his lack of experience in the IPL. He has the mindset and the approach that a modern-day T20 opener requires, enough experience at the international level, and could be the breath of fresh air that KKR need up top for their stacked middle-order to come into the picture.

His ability to take on pacers in the powerplay could help KKR maximise the powerplay, just like Phil Salt used to do, a couple of seasons back. Six-hitting is also an area where the KKR top order struggled throughout the season in the powerplay, and Allen comes across as the right fit as a potential resolution of the plaguing issue.

#2 Delhi Capitals

DC struggled to find the right opening combination throughout the IPL 2025 campaign. All potential options like Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, and KL Rahul were used, but they were unable to land on a pairing that clicked.

The fact that KL Rahul played his best cricket at the top, could suggest that he will be one of the openers for DC in IPL 2025. With Porel, Nair, Stubbs, Axar Patel, and the finishers in place to handle the middle order, the franchise needs to find the right opening partner for KL Rahul.

Jake Fraser-McGurk's inconsistency and Faf du Plessis not being a long-term option can encourage DC to make Finn Allen a prime target to resolve their top-order issues in the next season. Having such an aggressive option up top will also ease the pressure on KL Rahul, who can play his natural game, which balances being effective and explosive.

#3 Mumbai Indians

MI did not face major top-order issues as the left-hand-right-hand pairing of Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickleton worked out quite well. But, at some point or other, the franchise will have to start thinking of a long-term option to replace Rohit Sharma, when he eventually departs.

MI do have Will Jacks as a potential option, but he does not project as a credible opening option for a high-profile franchise. Instead, the team will have to go into the auction market to seek an option who can eventually take over from Rohit Sharma at the top when the time comes.

Allen appears as a perfect fit on paper, not only helping MI keep a hold of their left-hand-right-hand combination at the top, but also providing more explosiveness in the batting order. The right-handed batter would relish playing on the Wankhede surface, where the ball generally comes well onto the bat, with good bounce too.

But the drawback here is that MI already have two overseas players in their top three, and the potential inclusion of Allen might not give the team room to include overseas players in the other areas of the playing XI.