Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 is a few weeks away. Many players have reached their base for the 19th edition of the tournament. Three-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will come in with a new coaching setup in the form of Abhishek Nair as head coach and Shane Watson as assistant coach.
The Knights did not perform well in the IPL last season and finished 7th on the points table with only five wins and seven losses. KKR came with the highest purse in last year’s mini-auction with Rs 63 crore. They bought Cameron Green, Mathisha Pathirana, Finn Allen and Tim Seifert in the auction.
Will KKR depend on spinners?
He has a lot of firepower in his batting. However, their bowling has looked a bit weak, with Mustafizur Rahman out and Blessing Muzarabani in his place, and Harshit Rana also ruled out of the tournament after undergoing knee surgery. They have players like Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Kartik Tyagi and Akash Deep in their line-up.
But the team will depend on its two frontline spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakraborty. Both of them have been key bowlers for the team over the years, especially Sunil Narine, who has been with the franchise since 2012 and has been crucial in every title they have won so far.
KKR is blessed with two complete guns – Faf du Plessis
The Purple and Gold franchise did not get any help in spin from the Eden Gardens wicket. There was also controversy over the questions raised on curator Sujan Mukherjee. However, ahead of the IPL, former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener Faf du Plessis has advised the KKR management to look for spin wickets at Eden Gardens.
“If I were part of the KKR team management, I would ask the groundsman to make the wicket spin-friendly. KKR is lucky to have two great players in Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine. They are two of the best T20 spinners in the game at the moment,” he said on GeoHotstar.
He said, “Both Varun and Narine have to be in the game. If they play on surfaces where they are not in contention, you are losing those two guns and your superpower. Yes, they can bowl well on any wicket, but for KKR to be successful in this IPL, they need to fire. The pitches need to be prepared keeping those two players in mind.”
Knights are going back to the old spin strategy for winning strategy
The spinners failed to take many wickets at Eden Gardens as it suited the batsmen and had good pace and bounce and runs were easy to score. Although Varun Chakraborty had taken 17 wickets in the last season. On the other hand, Narine took 12 wickets.
Chakravarthy will be looking to build on his good form during India’s title-winning T20 World Cup campaign, where he took 14 wickets at an economy of over nine runs and finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
Ajinkya Rahane has been made the captain for the upcoming season. He had earlier expressed concern about the Eden Gardens pitch not being suitable for spinners. The three-time champions will play their first match away from home against Mumbai Indians on March 29.
Also read: Irfan Pathan names 3 players including Rajat Patidar who can become a headache for RCB in IPL 2026
