As the reigning Indian Premier League (IPL) champions entering the 2025 season, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will play the curtain raiser on March 22 to begin their campaign. They will play the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the famous Eden Gardens, their home field.
Under the direction of Shreyas Iyer, the team won their third IPL trophy in 2024 after defeating Pat Cummins’ SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the championship match. Players will be ready for the next 18th IPL season now that the Champions Trophy is over and India has won.
In 2025 the team under Lara rehired Ajinkya Rahane who became the leader of the squad. During the semifinal Rahane guided Mumbai to the final by scoring 98 runs while becoming the leading scorer in the previous Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy competition.
Krishna Rajput’s more experienced line-up consists of players who are facing difficulties maintaining proper form.
Let’s examine three of these elite players:
1. Andre Russell
One of the mainstays of the KKR circuit, Caribbean all-rounder Andre Russell, was signed by the team for ₹12 crore. He has won two titles with KKR and has been wearing the purple uniform since 2014.
Kolkata feels the heat – Dre Russ is Here 🥵 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1blLx98rlC
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 12, 2025Everyone is aware of Russell’s brutality with the bat and the ball. But he hasn’t been playing well in the 20-over format lately. Even though he scored 295 runs in 15 games and claimed 19 wickets in his IPL 2024 appearances, his latest performances have fallen short of expectations.
In his last 10 Twenty20 matches, which have all taken place between January 15 and February 3 of this year, he has only managed to score 104 runs and take one wicket. He has played for the KKR-owned Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20 tournament nine times in the last ten games.
2. Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock, who spent three consecutive seasons playing for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), will now wear the KKR uniform. At the two-day IPL 2025 mega-auction, the three-time champions paid ₹3.60 crore to sign him.
𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲 𝗞𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. 𝗜𝘀. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲. 💜 pic.twitter.com/4xeoAXf59Y
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 11, 2025Over the past few iterations of the lucrative event, De Kock has demonstrated his value as an all-around player while playing for the Mumbai Indians (MI) and LSG. He has only scored 159 runs in eight innings in his last ten T20 appearances, and he most recently played in the SA20.
Having scored 250 runs in 11 games last year and 143 runs in four games in the 2023 season, his results in the last two IPL seasons have also been average. The Protea wicketkeeper-batter, who is joining a new side this season, hopes to regain his previous level of performance.
3. Rinku Singh
KKR retain Rinku Singh who posted mediocre results during the last IPL season despite being an Indian national team and KKR star batsman. The team opted to sign Rinku Singh for a record-breaking INR 13 crore which exceeded the values of team companions Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.
𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐊𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐚 🚀 pic.twitter.com/Q0MvcHCZ9V
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 12, 2025He currently represented India in three Twenty20 International matches versus England which took place on home grounds during January 2025. In two of the matches, he did not get a chance to bat, but he managed to score 39 runs overall.
Rinku’s performance graph declined after he hammered 474 runs in 14 IPL 2023 matches. In 2024, he managed to score 168 runs while playing the same number of matches. Just 26 was his highest score from the previous season. Rinku Singh would be eager to get back into competitive cricket after more than two months off.
