IPL 2025: Change and constant, two sides of the KKR’s story
The champions have to show that by keeping the core of the team intact they can fill a Gambhir-sized hole
Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have shown they can win the Indian Premier League (IPL) but can they defend it? Going into the 18th season, only two teams have done that: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2011, Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2020. At five apiece, only CSK and MI have more titles than KKR.
In Quinton de Kock, Knights have a player who knows how it is done. De Kock was key to MI’s success in 2019 and 2020, scoring over 500 runs, including four half-centuries, in each season and with a good strike rate (132.91 in 2019 and 140.50 in 2020). Each time De Kock scores over 500 runs in a season, his team makes the play-offs.
Bought for ₹3.6 crore at last November’s mega auction, De Kock is among the few new players in purple. He is a like-for-like replacement for Phil Salt whom KKR had tried hard to retain. Including Venkatesh Iyer, for whom KKR paid an IPL third-highest ₹23.75 crore, the defending champions were able to do that with 13 in their 21-player roster.
“We are in a good space, carrying a lot from last year, so the guys know their roles,” said Sunil Narine, KKR’s all-action hero ahead of his 14th season with them.
Yet, there is a lot that feels like change. And change KKR have over the years. After finishing sixth or worse in each of the first three seasons, they traded stardom for stability, Sourav Ganguly for Gautam Gambhir, winning two titles and making the play-offs in three more seasons between 2011 and 2018. The punt on India’s U19 World Cup starlets or Brendon McCullum, appointed head coach before ‘Bazball’ became part of cricket’s lexicon, didn’t work so KKR went big on the tactical nous of Indians.
But, having ended a 10-year wait for their third IPL title, KKR have a new captain, new vice-captain, frontline foreign fast bowler and new appointments in the coaching staff under head coach Chandrakant Pandit.
Stephen Fleming at CSK and Mahela Jayawardene at MI are proof of what continuity can achieve but even at IPL teams that crave stability, auctions, mega or mini, lead to changes. At KKR, think Shreyas Iyer or Salt. Think KKR not using RTM for Nitish Rana in 2025 or Manish Pandey in 2018. “They say, if you get 70% of what you want from an auction, you should be happy,” Venky Mysore, KKR CEO and managing director, told HT in 2018. KKR were probably one bid away from not getting Gambhir in 2011, he had said.
There were other factors beyond KKR’s control this time. Like with Trevor Bayliss and McCullum before him, Gambhir left to become a national team coach. “He will be a big miss,” Narine said on Wednesday. Gambhir also took away Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, key members of the staff. Nayar was with KKR from 2018, Ten Doeschate was appointed in November 2022.
Which leaves Pandit, bowling coach Bharat Arun and spin bowling coach Carl Crowe as familiar faces. Pandit is a serial trophy winner in domestic cricket but how will he handle the overseas players, Aakash Chopra, the former India and KKR player, asked in a Cricinfo programme. “I think that was the question last time and was addressed without removing him and bringing Gautam Gambhir.”
Now, Dwayne Bravo, a T20 legend, will have to fill the Gambhir-sized hole. “He knows how to win games, and coming to KKR will be no different for him,” Narine has said. Bravo was part of the Knights’s team in the Caribbean Premier League.
Also in the staff as assistant-coach is Ottis Gibson who brings a wealth of international coaching experience. In a format big on inputs from the dugout, the relationship between new and old faces in the staff and how players get along with Bravo and Gibson will be crucial to KKR’s fortunes.
Naming Ajinkya Rahane captain was consistent with KKR assembling a squad first before choosing a leader. They did with Gambhir in 2011 and Dinesh Karthik in 2018. Appointing Venkatesh Iyer vice-captain too is their way of connecting old and new, change and constant. It happened when Robin Uthappa was named Karthik’s deputy. After taking over as captain in 2020 from Karthik, Eoin Morgan had described the transition as “seamless”. Rahane is 36, KKR will hope for a change similarly smooth when needed.
In a league with evenly-matched teams, transitions can be doubly difficult. That is what makes Liverpool’s run this season remarkable, the crowbars in the Slot machine by Plymouth Argyle, Paris St-Germain and Newcastle notwithstanding. Gambhir has been influential in every successful KKR campaign. KKR will have to show that by keeping the core of the team intact they can compensate for his absence.
