Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) did not have as good a tournament as they would have liked in the . The defending champions failed to qualify for the playoffs as rain interrupted the match between them and RCB on May 17. However, they were practically out of the race even before the washed-out game. A lot had to do with KKR’s mistakes, be it at the auction table or in the tournament.
KKR had to let go of some of their key players from the IPL 2024, especially their former skipper, Shreyas Iyer, who has been better than all KKR batters in the 18th edition of the league. Additionally, they lost someone like Phil Salt, who provided a lot of stability at the top and was also the wicketkeeper, an aspect of the game which has come back to bite KKR in the IPL 2025.
5 things that went wrong with KKR in the IPL 2025
1. Change in batting order
In 2024, KKR’s top order had the likes of Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi. When Salt went for national duty, Raghuvanshi was bumped up as the opener, and Venkatesh Iyer batted at 3. In the middle order, they had the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, and Venkatesh. It is worth noting that Venkatesh’s best performances came at number 3.
Their finishing had Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, and Ramandeep Singh. In the IPL 2025, they have had Sunil Narine and Ajinkya Rahane at the top with a constant change in wicketkeepers – Quinton de Kock and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Raghuvanshi and Venkatesh, who succeeded in the top order, batted mostly in the middle order. The change in batting order did not work well for the three-time champions.
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