It is not only unimaginable, but also nearly irresponsible to lose your captain immediately after winning a title.
The irony of their massive auction was difficult to overlook, and KKR was unable to persuade Shreyas Iyer to stay. After spending it attempting to reassemble their 2024 championship core, they enter the upcoming season without the player who helped them cross the final line.
The team’s hopes now must undoubtedly rest on the other Iyer, whom they regained at a record cost of INR 23.75 crore, but only time will tell how much of a loss Shreyas will be. But don’t believe it if it seemed like a hint to their captaincy choice for this season. The 36-year-old Ajinkya Rahane, who had just led Mumbai to the local T20 championship while dominating the run charts and hammering the ball at a scorching strike rate of 166, was given the job instead.
In the case of KKR, success wasn’t cheap. In addition to losing their captain, they also lost their coach, Gautam Gambhir, who was primarily responsible for their comeback following consecutive seventh-place finishes. He also didn’t go by himself. He was replaced by Ryan ten Doeschate and Abhishek Nayar, who undermined the foundation of KKR’s think tank. In contrast to Gambhir, whose brief stint was founded on a profound comprehension of the team’s ethos as a former captain and player, that allowed Ottis Gibson to become assistant coach and Dwayne Bravo, an IPL veteran but outsider to KKR, to become mentor.
For KKR, the huge churn might not have happened at a worse moment, but it is what it is. Nevertheless, they still have the strongest spin assault in the competition and a lower middle order that can do really ridiculous things.
Full Squad
Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer (vc), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Quinton de Kock (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Mayank Markande, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia (wk), Anukul Roy, Rovman Powell, Moeen Ali, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson
This season’s home ground statistic to keep an eye on
In the IPL at Eden Gardens
| Player | Mat | Wkts | Avg | ER | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Narine | 59 | 70 | 19.96 | 6.33 | 18.9 |
| Varun | 15 | 21 | 24.29 | 9.00 | 16.2 |
Even if the Impact Player rule and increasing run-rates have made things more difficult at the Eden Gardens, Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine have managed to do what few spinners can: hold their own.
The pitch flattening out has made the ground less forgiving, which was formerly a sanctuary for slow-low spin in KKR’s purple and gold. One example of how tough it can be is Suyash Sharma, who only lasted a few seasons. However, KKR has two spinners, Narine and Chakaravarthy, who have overcome the odds on a very small field.
