IPL 13, 2020 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Team, Squad, Players, Captain, Bowlers, Batsman

IPL 12 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Team, Squad, Players, Captain, History, Owners, Facts, Records,Bowlers, Batsman, Jersey, Logo and Team Identity

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is a team that has been one of the most watched teams for the past IPL seasons. The team has displayed some of its best game performance earlier, although for some time, the players have not been performing to their expectations. The team had also managed to earn the IPL title in 2012 and 2014, but in other cases, they have been facing disappointment. The team is coached by Jacques Kallis and for the present IPL 2018 season he has been putting in his efforts to help the team retain its victory position for IPL season.

The team will be captained by Dinesh Kartik who is also holding his experience for his performance in T20 series. In the present IPL 2018 season it is also expected that the team has managed to retain two of its leading players for auction named Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. Narine is also best known for his Spins for the past performance in T20 series. Andre Russell is expected to play the middle order batsman. Apart from this KKR has also managed to add another 17 players to their squad for IPL 2018 season. With this it is expected that the fans will get to see some of the best moments of the game.

2018 Kolkata Knight Riders Squad and Auction list

2017 IPL History

• For the IPL season 2017 Kolkata Knight Riders had managed to score a run rate of 184 runs for 3 wickets when playing against Rising Pune Supergiant, who had scored an average of 182 for 5 wickets. The team had expected win of over 7 wickets in the match where Gautam Gambhir had displayed his best performance by scoring over half century. Later on chasing the score of 183 to make their best win, KKR had managed to target the entire team in 18.1 overs.
• In the match played against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders had managed to chase a big score of 159 runs with over 4.5 overs yet left to play and having six wickets in hand. With this the team had managed to place themselves in the second place in the IPL league.
• When playing the match against Delhi Daredevils, KKR also managed to beat the team by 7 wickets and over 22 balls in the Eden Gardens stadium. In the same match Gautam Gambhir was also honored as the man of the match and one of the leading players to score maximum runs for IPL 2017 season.

IPL 2017 Team

Kolkata Knight Riders have retained 14 players from the squad of their 2016 IPL team. They will also look forward to buying a few more players from the player auction of IPL. The local players in their team are both emerging and talented and also they have a few experienced local players. The team also has overseas talents in their team.

The team already has someplayers who have already played the Indian Premiere League quite a few times and thus they will have the experience to back them up as they look forward to lifting their third trophy in IPL 10 2017. The young talents and the senior members of the team will make the team more balanced and compact and they will be the team to beat in the IPL 10 2017.

Kolkata Knight Riders will have more chances to win the IPL 10 2017 because of the depth and balance in their squad as well as the energy and experience in it. They are one of the teams to watch out for in the IPL 10 2017. Their fans are also wishing that they will lift the trophy this season after an unsuccessful season previously.

Players

Kolkata Knight Riders started their journey in 2008. Sourav Ganguly was the team captain and the icon player of the team at that time.Sourav Ganguly’s birthplace is also Kolkata and thus it increased the popularity of the team. Sourav Ganguly led the team in 2008 and 2010 seasons. Kolkata Knight Riders had some of the finest players of international cricket in the first few editions of IPL such as Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Umar Gul, David Hussey, Angelo Mathews, Brad Hodge, Ajantha Mendis, and Shane Bond etc. They also had a bunch of talented local players including Ishant Sharma, Murali Karthik, Wriddhiman Saha, etc.

In 2011, the team significantly revamped their squad as they left out Sourav Ganguly. Kolkata Knight Riders bought Gautam Gambhir for a record breaking fee and appointed him as the captain of the team. The team had to face a lot of criticisms for letting Sourav Ganguly out and had to face harsh criticisms from the local fans. In spite of leaving their icon player out, Kolkata was able to create a good squad with the likes of Brad Haddin, Shakib Al Hasan, Brett Lee, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Jacques Kallis and Eoin Morgan. They also bought West Indian spinner Sunil Narine in the following season and these players led them to their first IPL trophy in the 2012 IPL. Since then the team added few more local talents and overseas talents including Suryakumar Yadav, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson, Colin Munro, etc.

The current squad of Kolkata Knight Riders is very strong. The coach of the team is their former player Jacques Kallis. Gautam Gambhir is still the captain of the team and one of the star players of the team.

The current players of the team are very experienced and there are also some emerging talents. Gautam Gambhir, Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa are the top order batsmen in the team. Gautam Gambhir is the leading run scorer of the team. Robin Uthappa is the wicket-keeper and the opener of the team. Manish Pandey is a talented top order batsman of the team who is a brilliant stroke maker. Yusuf Pathan is the hard hitter top order batsman of the team. The team also has a talented top order batsman from Australia named Chris Lynn.

Shakib Al Hasan and Andre Russell are the two all-rounders of this team. They both are overseas players and they have a lot of experience in IPL and in international cricket which will help the team. The team also has a very good local middle order batsman named Suryakumar Yadav.

The bowling department of the team is also very good with pacers like Umesh Yadav and Ankit Rajpoot. Also they have three quality spinners. Sunil Narine is the leading wicket taker for Kolkata and he will be vital again this season. Both the local spinners, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav are also expected to play a big part in the IPL 10.

Captains 

The first captain of the team was Sourav Ganguly. Brendon McCullum was the vice-captain of the team and captained the side in intervening periods.

From 2008-2010, Kolkata Knight Riders was considered as the weakest team in IPL and they had to significantly revamp their squad to enjoy some sort of success. Kolkata Knight Riders made a few changesto their side in 2011 when they bought Gautam Gambhir from the player auction of IPL 2011. Gautam Gambhir was appointed as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in 2011 and Jacques Kallis was the vice-captain of the team.

From 2011-2016, Gautam Gambhir has led the team brilliantly. In IPL 10 2017, Gautam Gambhir will again be captaining the side and the vice-captain of the team will be local talent Suryakumar Yadav.

History 

One of the most prominent franchises in India, Kolkata Knight Riders was founded in 2008. The team was bought for a price of $75.09 million in 2008.  Since then, they have participated in all of the IPL seasons and have won the trophy twice. The team was eliminated from the group stage of IPL 1 in 2008. After that, they were also eliminated from the group stage of IPL 2 & 3 in 2009 and 2010 and then they were considered as the weakest team of IPL.

The franchise made a lot of changes to their team in IPL 4. A new captain was appointed who was able to take his team to their first ever playoffs in 2011 in IPL 4. The fans of the team started to hope for more. Kolkata Knight Riders were able to live up to the expectations of the fans as the team lifted their first ever IPL trophy in the 5^th edition of IPL under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir. They enjoyed a win percentage of 70.58% throughout the tournament and were the best team of the tournament. Kolkata Knight Riders had beaten Chennai Super Kings in their first ever IPL final.

After a good season it was expected that they would carry on with their form but they failed to deliver in IPL 6. They were not able to live up to the expectations of their fans and they were eliminated from the group stage of IPL 6. After a poor season, the fans expected Kolkata Knight Riders to deliver again. In IPL 7, Kolkata Knight Riders was able to pull off a miracle again as they were able to lift the IPL trophy for the second time with a mediocre squad. They enjoyed a win percentage of 68.75% throughout the tournament and were able to beat Kings XI Punjab in the final of 7^th edition of IPL.

After a brilliant season in 2014, Kolkata Knight Riders failed again in 2015 as they were eliminated from the group stage in IPL 8. In the previous season of IPL, in 2016, Kolkata Knight Riders played well but only to progress till the playoffs. They enjoyed a win percentage of 53.33% but they were not able to win the tournament for the third time in IPL 9.

Owners 

Kolkata Knight Riders was bought by three famous stars of India. The names of the owners of Kolkata Night Riders are given below.

1. Shah Rukh Khan
2. Juhi Chawla and
3. Jay Mehta

Shah Rukh Khan holds 55% partnership of the team and Juhi Chawla and her husband, Jay Mehta holds 45% partnership of the team.

Facts 

• Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta are the owners of the team and they are one of the most famous figures in India. They bought the right of the team for Rs 300 crore.
• Gautam Gambhir is one of the most expensive players of IPL with a salary of Rs 100 million.
• The kit of the Kolkata Knight Riders is designed by one of the top fashion designers of India named Manish Malhotra.
• The name Knight Riders is taken from the famous TV serials of 1980 named Knightrider. The term Kolkata represents the city Kolkata.
• The brand value of Kolkata Knight Riders was $86 million in IPL 2015, which is the highest brand value amongst all the eight teams participating in IPL.
• Kolkata Knight Riders holds the record of longest winning streak by any IPL team in T-20 cricket. They have won 14 matches in a row which is the record currently.
• The home ground of Kolkata Knight Riders is Eden Gardens which is the largest cricket ground in India and the third largest in the world.
• Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re is the official chant of Kolkata Knight Riders. The chant means we will act, fight and win in English.
• Kolkata Knight Riders are the most successful franchise in IPL playing currently with 2 IPL trophies.

Records 

• Gautam Gambhir is the leading run scorer of the team with 2847 runs from 105 innings with 26 fifties.
• Brendon McCullum’s 158* is the highest score in a single match for Kolkata Knight Riders.
• Andre Russell has a strike rate of 177.67 which is the highest strike rate for the team.
• Sunil Narine is the leading wicket taker of the team with 103 wickets from 75 matches.
• Sunil Narine’s 19/5 against Kings XI Punjab in 2012 is the best bowling performance by any Kolkata Knight Riders bowler.
• Sunil Narine has an economy rate of 6.06 which is the best for Kolkata Knight Riders.
• Robin Uthappa has 37 dismissals for Kolkata Knight Riders which is the highest for any wicket-keeper of Kolkata Knight Riders.
• Yusuf Pathan has played the most number of matches (107) for Kolkata Knight Riders. 

Jersey

The original team jersey of Kolkata Knight Riders was black and gold in color. The black symbolized the Goddess Kali and the gold symbolized the spirit of life. In 2010, the black color was changed to purple. The current color of Kolkata’s jersey is dark blue with golden layer.

Logo 

Kolkata Knight Riders have changed their logo over the years. The current logo of Kolkata Knight Riders is purple in color with golden shades. There is a Corinthians Helmet in the logo which is purple in color. The name of the team is also trimmed in the logo with golden color. 

Team Identity 

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