One of the criticisms for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after the IPL 2025 auction was that the team didn’t spend enough on quality bowlers for their side. Of course, they retained Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell, but then there was a void in their bowling for sure. But now, how things transpired at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy—the team must be very confident of putting up an excellent show at the IPL 2025.
Ajinkya Rahane the biggest positive for KKR
For starters, their 1.5 Cr buy, Ajinkya Rahane, emerged as the highest run-getter in the tournament, scoring 469 at an average of 98 and a strike rate of 164. That included five 50s as well, and that said, he has emerged as the top captaincy contender for the team. Then, middle-order batter Rinku Singh was exceptional too, scoring 277 runs in 9 matches, at an average of 69.
Surprise buy at over 23 Cr, Venkatesh Iyer was impressive with both bat and ball and did exceptionally well to take Madhya Pradesh to the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. With the bat, in 10 matches he scored 227 runs at an average of 56, and picked up 7 wickets as well at an economy of 8.84.
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Varun Chakravarthy, as usual was in his element and picked up nine wickets in 7 matches for Tamil Nadu. What was even more remarkable is the fact that he had an economy rate of only 7.74. Then there is a certain Manish Pandey, who in 5 matches scored 117 runs at an average of 29. One of their retentions this season, Ramandeep Singh also chipped in with valuable contributions.
He scored a valiant 39 vs Hyderabad and overall picked up five wickets in the seven matches he played, showing he can come up with two-three overs for KKR when needed. Also in action was youngster Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who went on to score 88 runs in 4 matches he played.
Though not at his best, Vaibhav Arora picked up five wickets in as many matches. But the highlight was, he did not leak too many runs. Speaking of concerns though, Umran Malik played only one match for J&K and KKR would only be hoping, that the express pacer returns to full fitness before IPL 2025.
