Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won their third title under Shreyas Iyer in 2024, but finished 8th in the points table in the next season in 2025. Going into IPL 2026, these players can become a liability for the team.
After the release of Shreyas Iyer, KKR chose experienced batsman Ajinkya Rahane as its captain in 2025. Despite the poor season, they plan to retain the Mumbai star as their captain. They also have a new coaching panel with Abhishek Nair and Shane Watson playing key roles.
Ajinkya Rahane’s team will be in deep trouble this IPL due to their bad luck. Most of their frontline fast bowling options have been ruled out of the competition. Harshit Rana and Akash Deep have been ruled out of the competition, while Pathirana will miss the entire first half of the tournament.
3 players who are the biggest burden for KKR in IPL 2026
Ajinkya Rahane
KKR will be eyeing their first trophy under Ajinkya Rahane, but the captain himself looks a bit out of place in the team, which has several top-order players who are young and bring some dynamic ability to excel in T20 cricket.
Kolkata already has many big names associated with the top order. He is likely to open with Finn Allen and Sunil Narine, while Cameron Green can be kept at number. 3. Rahane has always struggled in the middle order, especially against spinners in the middle overs.
It was not a bad season for Rahane in the domestic T20 as he participated in the SMAT games for Mumbai. The experienced batsman scored 391 runs at an impressive average of 48.87 and a strike rate of around 168. Despite the form, his batting role will be a liability for the KKR management.
Umran Malik
Jammu and Kashmir fast bowler Umran Malik rose to prominence in the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad but then failed to maintain his excellent form. Malik’s pace is his biggest strength as well as weakness.
Hailing from the northernmost part of India, Umran Malik did not play most of the domestic season for his home team, Jammu and Kashmir. Umran took part in one match of the Buchi Babu tournament and one match of the Ranji Trophy, where he took 3 and 2 wickets respectively.
In SMAT 2025-26, he played only a few matches and returned with 6 wickets, which does not look very promising after a 17-month long drought. He was dropped from the last IPL, and will now be one of KKR’s frontline pacers in 2026, which will be a big burden for them in the absence of players like Harshit and Akash Deep.
Mathisha Pathirana
This will undoubtedly be KKR’s biggest burden in the 2026 IPL. They made changes to their team and bought the Lankan fast bowler in the mini-auction for a whopping price of Rs 18 crore. However, in the first season, Pathirana was surrounded by huge injury scare.
The Lankan pacer is injured and out of action since the T20 World Cup. SLC has also not issued NOC to the cricketer and will issue any NOC only after getting approval for all the tests. Pathirana will not be available till the second half of the IPL.
After such a huge investment, KKR might have considered letting him lead the pace attack, but that would be disappointing for the Knight Riders.
Also read: “Lucks started sinking” – Former PBKS captain expressed concern over Nicholas Pooran’s form ahead of IPL 2026