- May 15, 2025
A year ago, the Kolkata Knight Riders were the kings of the IPL—gentle strolls, planning, and sensational performances all worked in concert. Skip to IPL 2025, and they’re now hanging on by the thread of a mathematical possibility. Fans are bewildered, journalists are sharpening their knives, and somewhere between the auction table and the dugout, KKR lost their way. So what happened? Why did the defending champions fall off a cliff and crash and burn this season? Let’s untangle the debris from the wreckage from here, one over at a time.
Misfiring at the Top: A Bowling Attack That Forgot to Attack
KKR’s bowling over the years, particularly the pace early on, has been a game changer. But it fizzled in 2025. The most visible crack in their armor is that they’re not being able to take wickets in the powerplay. When you let the opposition batter with no hassle for the first six overs, you invite trouble. And KKR did that an alarming number of times.
Jacques Nourian was still choking teams in the middle overs, but without early breakthroughs, his job became much, much harder. It is to say that spin can only hurt if it’s with early pressure. KKR bowlers seemed to be on the defensive most of the time, primarily because they were not aggressive with the new ball. If you can’t get the early momentum killers in place, any bowling plan, no matter how great, starts to break down, and that’s what happened here.
Confused Line-Up, Confused Results
Let’s examine KKR’s batting order, or rather, the absence of a batting order. With possibly a dozen established names, not to mention Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, and the lesser-known Angkrish Raghuvanshi, this should not have depth issues. But depth can also bring depth problems!
There were times I felt like KKR’s batting order was like a Rubik’s cube: tons of moves but not yet solved. While Venkatesh is ideal at No. 3, the addition of Rahane pushed Venkatesh lower in the order. Rinku and Russell, two of the deadliest finishers in the game, only got to face a few balls each to make an impact. While Raghuvanshi is likely to be an impact player, putting him in with Rahane strangled the pace of the batting order.
As far as phase three of KKR’s batting order went, it felt like the team was only thinking about jamming all of their best players into the lineup without giving attention to the important overriding question: Are we using our best players to execute the plan that was required? KKR, on many occasions, looked like it had five numbers three—and therefore, never had much in terms of a real plan. The players had all of the weapons, but nobody had the keys to the ignition.
Auction Woes and Leadership Limbo: Decisions That Haunted Them
KKR’s troubles did not start on the pitch—they began at the auction. Rather than strengthening their team in areas of weakness, the franchise instead displayed too much loyalty to their 2024 title-winning roster. Sounds nice, right? But it has been expensive.
Then we had the situation of leadership. It was late when Ajinkya Rahane was appointed as captain, much more like a puzzle piece than an actual plan, fully fleshed out. If he was your preferred option for captaincy, why did you choose him during the early stages of the accelerated auction? More importantly, once Ajinkya becomes captain, his position as a batter becomes inflexible—he has to bat at No. 3 even when the team needs to shift at the top of the order.
So, what’s next for KKR? Is there a way to rebuild them with better squad understanding and more purposeful strategies? Or will the rumbles of 2025 follow into next season? One thing is certain: loyalty without logic could be their biggest nemesis.
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