Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2025 Captain, Vice-Captain, Brand Ambassador, Logo Details

Captain- Ajinkya Rahane

Vice Captain- Venkatesh Iyer

Ambassador(s) - Shah Rukh Khan

Jersey - Purple with accents of Gold

Theme Song - Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo

Major Rival(s) - Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians

Logo - A flaming Purple Knight's helmet with gold outline and the team name inscribed.

History

2008

• Sourav Ganguly became captain of the Kolkata based franchise.

• The name of the team is a reference to the popular 1980s American television series Knight Rider.

• Brendon McCullum struck 158* against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the inaugural match of the first ever IPL.

• KKR could not repeat their first match heroics and ended the tournament in the 6th position.

2009

• Sourav Ganguly was removed from captaincy.

• Brendon McCullum assumed the role of the captain.

• KKR had another miserable season finishing last this time.

2010

• Sourav Ganguly was reinstated as the captain of the Knight Riders.

• And yet again the team finished sixth.

2011

• Sourav Ganguly was sacked.

• This decision was highly criticised by fans.

• Delhi boy, Gautam Gambhir was brought in the major auction and was handed captainship responsibilities.

• KKR finished fourth after reaching the playoff stages for the first time.

2012

• Sunil Narine starred throughout the season picking up 24 wickets as KKR seemed to have found their mojo.

• Under Gambhir, the Knight Riders lifted their first IPL Trophy.

2013

• Although Narine repeated and piled on his heroics from the previous season picking up 22 wickets, something or the other went wrong for the Riders.

• KKR finished the tournament sixth, despite several great performances.

2014

• Robin Uthappa and Sunil Narine starred in the league stages with former scoring 660 runs and the latter picking up 21 wickets.

• KKR defeated KXIP lifting the IPL trophy for the second time.

2015

• With none of the big guns firing and the captain, Gambhir, having the worst form of his career, the Knights failed to defend their crown.

• KKR finished fifth on the points table.

2016

• Although the Knights reached the playoffs , their advance was put to a halt by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator match and they finished fourth.

2017

• Yet again, even after cruising their way to the playoffs, the Knights faced an upset in the second qualifier by Mumbai Indians to exit the tournament third.

2018

• Dinesh Karthik was appointed the captain of the team.

• KKR reached Qualifier 2 and lost to Sunrisers to exit from the tournament.

• KKR finished 3rd.

2019

• KKR began their season on high but lost six consecutive matches to lose that momentum.

• Another disappointing year as KKR finishes the season at the 5th place.

2020

• KKR switched captains mid-season as Dinesh Karthik passed on the baton to Eoin Morgan

• KKR finished 5th and missed out on a playoffs spot by just 0.042 Net Run Rate.

2021

• The Knight Riders had a poor start to their season but they made a roaring return in the second half of the season, held in the UAE, to eventually qualify for Playoffs

• KKR defeated RCB and DC in the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 respectively to reach final.

• KKR lost to MS Dhoni’s CSK in the final by 27 runs to finish runners-up.

2022

• KKR retained just 4 players from the squad that propelled the franchise to the summit clash in the 2021 season. The players were Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy.

• In the mega-auction, the two-time champions claimed the services of former Delhi Capitals skipper, Shreyas Iyer for INR 12.25 Crores, eventually appointing him as their skipper.

• KKR endured a hit-and-miss season as they managed just 6 victories in 14 games, finishing at the 7th spot in the points table.

• Brendon McCullum stepped down as head coach after he took up the England's Test team head coach position.

2023

• In August 2022, KKR appointed serial Ranji Trophy winner Chandrakant Pandit as their new head coach.

• Ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction, KKR released as many as 15 players from their 2022 squad, in addition to trading in Lockie Ferguson and Rahmanullah Gurbaz from the Gujarat Titans.

Administration and Support Staff

Team Sponsors

KKR have gaming platform Winzo and educational site Unacademy as their principal sponsors for IPL 2023. Lux Cozi, TV9, Joy Care, Jio, 1 Finance, Acko, Wrogn, McDowell's No.1, Glance, Nestle Munch, LG, BKT Growing Together, Thums Up, Kotak, Mio Amore, Open, Rollick Ice Cream, Sampark Advertising & Media Pvt Ltd, Fever FM and Radio One 94.3 are the other partners of the two-time winners.

KKR - Batting Stats

Most Runs: Gautam Gambhir: 3346 runs

Most Centuries: Brendon McCullum: 1

Most Fifties: Gautam Gambhir: 30

Fastest Fifty: Yusuf Pathan, Sunil Narine: 15 balls

Fastest Century: Brendon McCullum: 53 balls

Best Batting Average: Chris Lynn: 34.43

Best Strike Rate: KC Cariappa: 300.00

Most Sixes: Andre Russell: 177

Most Fours: Gautam Gambhir: 383

Highest Individual Score: Brendon McCullum: 158*

KKR - Bowling Stats

Most Wickets: Sunil Narine: 170 wickets

Best Economy: Sunil Narine: 6.55

Best Bowling Figures: Sunil Narine : 4-19-5

Best Bowling Average: Shoaib Akhtar: 10.80

Most Maidens: Sunil Narine: 4

Most Runs Conceded: Ryan McLaren : 4-60-2

Most 4 Wickets: Sunil Narine: 8

Most 5 Wickets: Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell (1 each)

Most Hat-tricks: Sunil Narine: 1

Fan Base

Kolkata Knight Riders boasts the biggest Fan Base of all the IPL teams. Although most of it can be attributed to the involvement of the Bollywood Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, the team sure do have a certain charisma about it. Undoubtedly, KKR have always been the most glamorous of all teams earning themselves a loyal fan army over the years. From being underdogs in the first IPL season to one of the most cheered teams in the IPL, the Royals have sure come a long way. The Sawai Mansingh stadium looks like a sea of pink every time the Royals play there.

The franchise has over million followers on their every social media page. They have 16.9 million followers on Facebook, 5.1 million followers on Twitter and 3.4 million followers on Twitter. KKR has gained 1.11 million subscribers on its official YouTube channel.

Kolkata Knight Riders Team Performance

KKR 2023 Squad: Players to Watchout

#1. Andre Russell

Andre Russell is the star of KKR. He already established a record in IPL 2019 while he was on a batting rampage as he struck 52 big ones out of the park. Russell was also brilliant with the ball and has won several games for the Knight Riders single-handedly. This IPL edition is going to be another opportunity for the Jamaican to exhibit his prowess and perhaps take his team all the way over the line. Russell was the mainstay of KKR in the 2022 season with both bat and ball. The Windies swashbuckler hammered 335 runs at a strike rate of 174.47 besides claiming the most number of wickets- 17.

#2. Sunil Narine

At the helm of KKR players to watch out this season is another West Indian cricketer who has been an integral part of the Knight Riders franchise ever since he joined them. Sunil Narine is one of KKR's ace bowler and has troubled batsmen for several seasons now. What has been a happy surprise for KKR, is his recent developing batting skills. Narine has been opening the batting for KKR quite a few times and swinging it like there's no tomorrow.Narine did struggle to take wickets in the 2022 season, but he ensured that he kept it tight during the middle overs as well as at the death. In 56 overs that he delivered, the off-spinner conceded just 5.57 runs per over while claiming 9 wickets in the process.

#3 Rinku Singh:

The pocket-sized dynamo lit up the IPL last year with his brilliant display of hitting in crunch situations. In 7 innings, Rinku smashed 174 runs at a strike rate of 148.71, with his 18-ball 40 against LSG the headlining act. He will certainly be one of the players to watch out for in IPL 2023.