The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) plan to reach deep into the IPL playoffs for 2025 although they lost Shreyas Iyer as captain along with Phil Salt as opening batsman. The defending champions seem prepared to take the title after retaining most of their central playing factors.
But for the Knight Riders, the IPL 2025 auction wasn’t a flawless occasion. Due in major part to their excessive expenditure to retain their local players, there are obvious gaps in some areas of their lineup. Concerns have also been raised by Kolkata’s leadership group, which was chosen in a fairly perplexing manner.
KKR’s squad for IPL 2025: Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Varun Chakaravarthy, Mayank Markande, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Chetan Sakariya.
In light of this, KKR neglected to address three significant issues at the IPL 2025 auction.
1. Chetan Sakariya, signed as a replacement for Umran Malik, is KKR’s only Indian pace backup
Umran Malik has been ruled out of the 2025 Indian Premier League, according to KKR, which has announced Chetan Sakariya as his replacement. The Knight Riders are severely lacking in Indian pace backups on the bench, despite Sakariya being a respectable bowler who can contribute on some tracks.
Sakariya may occasionally be used as an impact substitute if KKR wishes to strengthen their bowling options, but Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora are anticipated to be in the starting XII. None on the team can fill in except for the three.
Kolkata may be shorthanded if any of the bowlers listed above suffer from a niggle or two.
2. Out-of-Place Middle-Order Batters Could Haunt KKR in IPL 2025
After acquiring Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, and Ajinkya Rahane, KKR will have to figure out how to include one or more of them in the starting lineup. Pandey and Raghuvanshi provide skill sets that will be beneficial to the squad, even though Rahane, who has been named captain, must bat in the powerplay.
As of right now, if KKR wants an additional bowling option, they might not be able to select Raghuvanshi, who had a breakout season the previous year. Being in that circumstance is uncomfortable, especially if it means that Andre Russell and Rinku Singh would have to bat a little higher than they did the previous season.
3. Where will the KKR captain bat?
Rahane’s appointment as captain has increased KKR’s worries in that area. Almost as an afterthought, they made the odd choice to give the reins to a person chosen in the accelerated round of the auction.
Although Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock appear ready to lead the Knight Riders’ batting, Rahane performs best against pace. The KKR captain will have to contend with a significant amount of spin if they make it through the powerplay, which is never a good idea.
Furthermore, the team will be in a difficult situation if Rahane loses his form because they might not be able to fire their captain. Since bringing back Shreyas Iyer was never a realistic option, the three-time IPL winners should have ideally entered the IPL 2025 auction with a clear captaincy aim.
