5 players who were at their peak while representing Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL

3. Laxmi Ratan Shukla

Laxmi Ratan Shukla - The unlikely hero for KKR today #IPL

— Sanjay Goel (@sanjaygoel) May 20, 2009

Laxmi Ratan Shukla is a former Indian all-rounder who represented the nation in three ODI matches. Incidentally, Shukla also played for three IPL teams in his career, namely the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Delhi Capitals, and the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

His best performances in the league came when he played for his home franchise, KKR. Shukla scored 374 runs in 31 innings at a strike rate of 119.87.

Shukla claimed his only Man-of-the-Match award in IPL by scoring 48 runs for Kolkata in a match against the Rajasthan Royals on a challenging surface at Kingsmead. No other batter scored more than 22 runs in that IPL 2009 fixture.

Shukla also picked up 14 wickets for the Knight Riders, with his best figures being 3/6. When he moved to Delhi, his batting strike rate dipped to 81.58, and his bowling strike rate went up from 19.29 to 56. The Sunrisers did not give him a game during his last IPL season.

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2. Iqbal Abdulla

After speaking at length about his exploits in domestic cricket, #IqbalAbdulla speaks about his IPL experience in Part Two.Thank you! @iqqiabdullah for a cracking interview 🙌Do not miss this one! ❤️👇https://t.co/unzMXNO9JI#IPL #RCB #RR #KKR #cricket #sports #interview

— Anuj Prabhu (@PrabhuKaGyaan) March 16, 2021

Iqbal Abdulla joined the Kolkata Knight Riders in the inaugural season and stayed with the franchise till IPL 2013. He came into the limelight during the 2011 IPL, where he took the Rising-Star-of-the-Season award home.

In total, Abdulla played 33 matches for the Kolkata Knight Riders, accounting for 27 wickets at a bowling average of 24.96. His economy rate while bowling for KKR was only 6.59 runs per over.

The Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore used his services during his subsequent seasons. However, Abdulla's economy rate rose to 8.5 while playing for the two franchises. His bowling average for RCB was 34.83.

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1. Sourav Ganguly was the leading run-scorer for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2010

Sourav Ganguly at IPL Auction 2010

Sourav Ganguly never played a T20I match for the Indian cricket team. However, Dada played five IPL seasons in his career. He began his journey with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Ganguly was part of the Kolkata-based franchise for three seasons, where he aggregated 1,031 runs at a batting average of 28.64. The left-handed batsman recorded all of his seven IPL half-centuries while donning the Kolkata Knight Riders' jersey.He alsoe picked up eight wickets at an economy rate of 7.44 for the Knight Riders.

Although Ganguly was the highest run-getter for the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2010,with 493 runs in 14 innings, the team management released him from the squad.

Later, he played for the Pune Warriors. Ganguly could only score 318 runs at a strike rate of 96.36 across two seasons for Pune. Even his economy rate increased to 9.5 runs per over.