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The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had an unlucky Indian Premier League 2020 season. Having started the season with 7 victories and 7 defeats in the league stage, the team finished 5th and could not qualify for the playoffs. Over-dependence on Andre Russell, both with the bat and ball might be one of the reasons.
Their opening-partnership choice of Eoin Morgan and Shubman Gill backfired and all pressure was put on the middle order. Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russel were disappointing too. Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill (later moved up to open the innings) stepped up for the team.
KKR bowlers also had a disappointing season. They did not live up to their expectations. Eoin Morgan spin trio of Sunil Narine, M Siddharth, and Kuldeep Yadav also got tossed around for runs.
About KKR Team
| Nickname | KKR |
|---|---|
| League | Indian Premier League |
| Personnel | |
| KKR captain 2021 | Eoin Morgan |
| Coach | Brendon McCullum |
| Owner | Knight Riders Group
|
| Chief executive | Venky Mysore |
| Team information | |
| City | Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Colors | Golden, Black |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Home ground | Eden Gardens, Kolkata |
| Capacity | 68,000 |
| History | |
| Indian Premier League wins | 2 (2012, 2014) |
| Official website | kkr.in |
Kolkata Knight Riders- KKR IPL 2021 Auctions
Kolkata Knight Riders Players
The Kolkata Knight Riders purchased 8 players in the IPL 2021 Auction, out of which there were 5 domestic and 3 overseas players. KKR had an available salary cap of Rs. 10.75 crore and the franchise spent Rs. 7.3 crore to purchase these 8 players.
Also read: Delhi Capitals Team: All You Need To Know About The Daredevils Of IPL
KKR purchased Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib-al-Hasan for 3.2 crores. KKR also bought Indian spinner, Harbhajan Singh, at his base price of Rs. 2 crores and Ben cutting at his base price of Rs. 75 lakh. Also, KKR team management decided to release six players namely- Chris Green, Harry Gurney, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Siddhesh Lad, and Tom Banton.
KKR Squad 2021/ Kolkata Knight Riders Players
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have a pretty decent squad lineup for IPL 2021. They were able to retain their 17 players.
KKR squad 2021/ KKR team 2021 Players List
- Eoin Morgan (KKR captain 2021)
- Dinesh Karthik
- Nitish Rana
- Shubman Gill
- Rinku Singh
- Rahul Tripathi
- Kamlesh Nagarkoti
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Lockie Ferguson
- Pat Cummins
- Prasidh Krishna
- Sandeep Warrier
- Shivam Mavi
- Varun Chakaravarthy
- Andre Russell
- Sunil Narine
- Tim Seifert
With a good squad, KKR will look at similar performances from Eoin Morgan, Gill, Rana, Cummins, and Kartik. Eoin Morgan’s leadership will be key in managing a team with such talents.
Also read: Punjab Kings Team: All You Need To Know About ‘Sheras’ Of The IPL
Kolkata Knight Riders History
Kolkata Knight Riders owner and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan are in dire need of good scripts. He doesn’t need to look beyond his own team for a good story. The journey of KKR and Kolkata knight Riders players has it all that takes for a blockbuster – Big names, fights, huge defeats, and finally sweet successes.
Everyone remembers the first IPL game when opener Brendon McCullum slammed an unbelievable 158 off 73 balls which included 10 boundaries and 13 sixes, helping KKR win the match against RCB by a massive 140 runs. After a thunderous start, KKR’s thunder fizzled and then started a series of disappointments until Gautam Gambhir was entrusted the captainship. KKR won the IPL twice under his iconic leadership.
KKR Team- Kolkata Knight Riders Team Performance (2008-2020)
| Season | League standing | Final standing |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 6th out of 8 | League stage |
| 2009 | 8th out of 8 | League stage |
| 2010 | 6th out of 8 | League stage |
| 2011 | 4th out of 10 | Playoffs |
| 2012 | 1st out of 9 | Champions |
| 2013 | 7th out of 9 | League stage |
| 2014 | 1st out of 8 | Champions |
| 2015 | 5th out of 8 | League stage |
| 2016 | 4th out of 8 | Playoffs |
| 2017 | 3rd out of 8 | Playoffs |
| 2018 | 3rd out of 8 | Playoffs |
| 2019 | 5th out of 8 | League stage |
| 2020 | 5th out of 8 | League stage |
Former Indian captain and ‘Dada’ of Cricket Sourav Ganguly was the captain of KKR in the first season. The team had some huge superstars including Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Ricky Ponting, Shoaib Akhtar, and many more. In spite of the big stars, the team performed poorly and remained sixth on the table.
In the following two seasons too, the performance of the team went from bad to worse. There were also reports that Sourav Ganguly and the owners had some differences.
Also read: Purple Cap In IPL 2020-2008 Winners List | Wickets | Economy | Average
Goodbye to Ganguly in 2011 IPL
In 2011, Ganguly wasn’t purchased in the auction by KKR. They invested in a reliable Gautam Gambhir with a whopping 2.4 million dollars price and Yusuf Pathan with 2.1 million dollars.
Other international names who were added include Shakib Al Hasan, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Ryan ten Doeschate, Eoin Morgan, and James Pattinson. This was the new dawn for the side. The team won 8 out of their 15 games, qualifying for the eliminator for the first time.
Lucky Finals in IPL 2012 for KKR Team
KKR bought a magician in the 2012 auctions who without a magical wand scripted history for his team. He was none other than Sunil Narine. It was just impossible for the batters to understand his bowling. He bowled the crucial overs and KKR won 12 games in the season, along with the finals against Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings.
The city of joy – Kolkata erupted and Shah Rukh Khan and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made it a huge carnival. 2014 was another success story for the franchise.
Indian players Robin Uthappa, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, and Piyush Chawla along with Morne Morkel, Patrick Cummins, and Chris Lynn – formed a formidable side. Gautam Gambhir’s tactical captaincy was spot on and the KKR team went on to win 11 games in the season. They defeated Kings XI Punjab, chasing a massive total.
Disappointments for KKR Team
In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020 seasons, KKR finished fifth, fourth, third, and fifth respectively but what was more noteworthy was that the team gave chances to youngsters like Ankit Rajpoot, Jaydev Unadkat, Rishi Dhawan, Ishank Jaggi, etc.
In the 2018 auctions, the franchise gave a clear indication that they are thinking of the future by not picking their most successful captain – Gautam Gambhir. They bought Dinesh Karthik and named him their captain and continued giving youngsters opportunities.
Kolkata Knight Riders Owners (KKR)
KKR is owned by Bollywood Superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s company Red Chillies Entertainment along with actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta. They bought the team for a price of 75.09 million dollars, equal to approximately ₹2.98 billion at that time.
The name of the team is a reference to the popular 1980s American television series Knight Rider. The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (we will perform, fight and win!) and the official colors are purple and gold. The brand value of the Knight Riders was estimated at ₹60, second-highest among IPL franchises.
In June 2015, the owners bought a stake in the Caribbean Premier League cricket team Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel and later in 2016, renamed it Trinbago Knight Riders. The tagline of the team was “All the King’s Men” during the first four seasons. However, in the fifth, it was replaced by “New Dawn, New Knights”.
Also read: IPL Team Owners | List Of All IPL 2021 Team Owners
Kolkata Knight Riders Sponsors- KKR
Principal Sponsor: Nokia
Official Sponsors: Jio Digital Life, Lux Cozi, Exide, Seagram’s Royal Stag, GreenPly, Khadim’s, Astral Pipes, Asian Paints, Senco Gold and Diamonds, MPL.
Partners: The Telegraph, Fever 104 FM, Go Ibibo, Sprite, Dream11, Sampark Advertising, and Media.
Merchandise Partner: Cover It Up, Gully, Kaadoo, Mobicloud Technologies, The Souled Store, Status Quo.
KKR Awards and Achievements
- Champions: 2012
- Champions: 2014
- Most Successive wins in a single Indian Premier League season- 9 (2014).
- Most Successive wins in the Indian Premier League-10 (2014-15).
- KKR is fourth in the list of the highest score in a match (245/6 vs KXIP, 2018).
- KKR holds the record for restricting their opponent. (49 vs RCB, 2017)
- 7th in the most successful run chase. (206 vs RCB, 2014)
- 3rd in the winning by the biggest margin of runs (140 vs RCB, 2008)
- Brendon McCullum is second on the list of most sixes in an innings (13 vs RCB, 2008)
- Andre Russel has the highest Strike rate of 186.41). Sunil Narine is second with a strike rate of 168.34.
- Yusuf Pathan and Sunil Narine are second and third on the list of fastest fifties in IPL. Pathan scored in 15 balls against SRH in, 2014 and Narine scored in 15 balls against RCB in 2017.
KKR Social Media
𝗦𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘 🗓️
The schedule for #IPL2021 is finally here! 🤩
We kickstart our campaign against @SunRisers on April 11 in Chennai ⏳#KKR #IPLFixtures #IPLSchedule pic.twitter.com/kh5d7WVovS
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 7, 2021
He gets it done with the bat ✅
He gets it done with the ball ✅Can't wait to see you back wearing purple and gold, @Sah75official! 💜#IPL2021 #KKR #Cricket #HaiTaiyaar pic.twitter.com/PvJvHk68nF
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 11, 2021
ICYMI: Presenting our league stage Knightinerary for #IPL2021 ✈️
📌 Chennai 📌 Mumbai 📌 Ahmedabad 📌 Bengaluru#KKR #HaiTaiyaar #Cricket pic.twitter.com/IZwCjZvf9R
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 10, 2021
Kolkata Knight Riders IPL summary (2008-2020)
| Year | Total | Wins | Losses | No result | Tied and won | Tied and lost | Win % | Position | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 42.85% | 6th | Group-Stage |
| 2009 | 14 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 21.42% | 8th | Group-Stage |
| 2010 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50.00% | 6th | Group-Stage |
| 2011 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53.33% | 4th | Play-offs |
| 2012 | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 66.66% | 1st | Champions |
| 2013 | 16 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37.50% | 7th | Group-Stage |
| 2014 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 68.75% | 2nd | Champions |
| 2015 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50.00% | 5th | Group-Stage |
| 2016 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53.33% | 4th | Play-offs |
| 2017 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 56.25% | 3rd | Play-offs |
| 2018 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 56.25% | 3rd | Play-offs |
| 2019 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 42.86% | 5th | Group-Stage |
| 2020 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 | 5th | Group-Stage |
| Total | 192 | 98 | 90 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 52.08 | 2-time Champions | |
Source: Wikipedia
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