2023 TATA IPL T20 – Team Kolkata Knight Riders

2023 TATA IPL T20 Kolkata Knight Riders, Team Shreyas Iyer, rivals, Eden gardens, matches, championships, Merchandise, Sharukh Khan

2023 Tata IPL T20 KKR Kolkata Knight Riders team victory rivals merchandise tickets Eden gardens Sharukh, game plan

Welcome back, today we are going to see an important but decisive franchise in IPL, yes, its none other than Kolkota Knight Riders. Arguably, the best team in the IPL tournament with 2 successful championship titles in the year 2012 and 2014.

Franchise Owner:

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. It was all started when the franchise is owned by Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta. Sourav Gangulv, former captain of the Indian national team, a native of West Bengal and the former President of BCCI, was named the Icon player for the team.

Valuation of KKR:

In 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) created the cricket tournament Indian Premier League, the T20 format. The teams representing the eight different cities of India were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February 2008. The team representing Kolkata was eventually bought by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s company Red Chillies, Entertainment in partnership with actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta for a price of $75.09 million at that time.

According to Forbes in 2022, the valuation of Kolkata Knight Riders stands at $1.1 billion.

KKR’s Home ground:

The home venue of the Knight Riders is the famous Eden Gardens. Owned by the Cricket Association of Bengal, it was the largest cricket stadium in India and with a seating capacity of 80000 approx. In 2011, the stadium was renovated to meet the standards set by the International Cricket Council for the 2011 Cricket World Cup; reducing its capacity to around 68,000.

Victory Lap of KKR in IPL:

KKR has won the IPL Championship title in the year 2012 and 2014 by a thumbing winning percentage of 70% and 68% of the IPL matches respectively.

They defeated Chennai Super Kings in the finals in 2012 and became the IPL champions. They repeated the same again in 2014, defeating Kings XI Punjab.

It has the most successful run against Pune Warriors with 80% winning, however the Pune Warriors is now a defunct team. From the active teams in IPL, its run against Punjab Kings is the favourite with a 65% winning percentage. In 2021, the franchise played really well and reached the playoffs of the tournament and won Runners Up.

The franchise’s all-time leading run-scorer is Gautam Gambhir, on the other hand, their leading wicket-taker is the West Indian star Sunil Narine.

KKR’s Rivalries in IPL:

The Knight Riders have historically been a successful franchise in the IPL. This success has led them to many rivalries among other teams especially Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

Mumbai Indian and Kolkata Knight Riders faced off in the opening match of the IPL 2015 season. Mumbai was up for batting in the first innings and scored 168/3. This charge was led by captain Rohit Sharma with his 98 runs. Kolkata captain, Gautam Gambhir had 57 runs and led his side to victory. Suryakumar Yadav’s 46 runs were crucial to KKR’s chase.

From 2015 to 2018, Mumbai Indians held an eight-game winning streak against the Kolkata Knight Rider and that was broken on 29 April 2019, as KKR posted a total of 232 runs and won by 34 runs. KKR’s Andre Russell scored 80 runs, and MI’s Hardik Pandya scored 91 runs. KKR holds the record for highest total for an IPL match played at Eden Gardens. This victory was KKR’s 100th T20 win, Mumbai Indians have won all three games between them since then. In the 2022 season, Kolkata beat Mumbai in all the matches between them.

The rivalry between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore is one of the oldest in the IPL. The inaugural match of IPL was played between both the teams in which KKR won by 140 runs due to a 158* off just 73 balls by Brendon McCullum. It’s a landmark achievement for the franchise.

In IPL 2009, both teams faced off against each other again in which RCB won both times. In the second time they faced each other, Ross Taylor scored a unbeaten knock of 81* runs off 33 balls to paving way for RCB’s 6 wickets over KKR.

Prince of KKR – Saurav Ganguly:

Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team and the prince of Kolkata (also popularly called as Dada, Maharaj, Bengal Tiger by his fans) was named as the icon player and without his support this franchise would not have reached this popularity and brand value across India, and he also led the franchise in the 2008 and 2010 seasons.

KKR’s IPL Squad:

When Sourav Ganguly was not available for a brief period in 2009, Brendon McCullum led the team in the intervening period.

Since 2022 was a mega auction, Kolkata Knight Riders had to release majority of players including top order batsman Shubman. Gill, skipper Ein Morgan and vice captain Dinesh Karthik.

KKR retained 4 players, Andre Russell for ₹12 crore, Sunil Narine for ₹6 crore and Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iver for ₹8 crore each.

With ₹48 crore in their purse, KKR bought marquee players Shreyas lver for ₹12.25 crore and re-signed Pat Cummins for ₹7.25 crore. KKR also bought back Nitish Rana, Sheldon Jackson, Rinku Singh, Shivam Maxi and Tim Southee.

Overseas players included English wicket-keeper Sam Billings for ₹2 crore, English batsman Alex Hales for ₹1.5 crore, Afghan all-rounder Mohammed Nabi for ₹1 crore and Sri Lankan all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne for ₹50 lakh.

KKR also signed top order batsman Ajinkya Rahane, Jharkhand left-handed spin all-rounder Anukul Roy and Jammu and Kashmir pacer Rasikh Salam Dar. They also bought back their former player Umesh Yadav for the base price of ₹2 crores, who last played for them in 2017. Alex Hales didn’t turn up for the IPL citing personal reasons and KK signed Australian skipper Aaron Finch as his replacement. In the middle of tournament, Rasikh suffered injury which ruled him out of IPL tournament. Due to this, KK signed fast bowler Harshit Rana as the replacement.

KKR’s Game plan for 2023 TATA IPL T20:

In IPL 2022 KKR secured only 12 points from their 14 games and finished seventh after the league stages. They will try to push their boundaries and taste the victory again. With seasoned players like Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine they would be hoping to make a much bigger mark this time out.

IPL T20 2023 Kolkata Knight Rider’s First match:

In the first match of TATA IPL 2023, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will face Punjab Kings (PBKS) at Mohali Stadium, Chandigarh at 3.30pm IST on Apr 1^st, 2023.

IPL T20 KKR Merchandise:

The official theme of the team is Korbo. Lorko, Jeeth Re in Bengali which means We will perform, fight, and win! and the official colors are purple and gold.

More about KKR:

Official website: https://www.kkr.in/

Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/KolkataKnightRiders/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kkriders/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KKRiders/

KK Shop: https://shop.kkr.in/

Tags: #AmiKKR

In Summary, 2023 is going to be an important season for KKR which aims to win the title this year. The reason is very simple, the person who will be behind this new energy is the former Madhya Pradesh coach Chandrakant Pandit. Under his coaching and tutelage, the Madhya Pradesh team won its very first Rani Trophy in 2022 so all eyes are now looking at the coach’s corner. Its going to be an interesting season for KK, especially when there is a strategy involved in this season due to a newly added rule in the tournament Impact Player. Hope the franchise do well in this season and we wish them all the very best of a successful season.Courtesy: ESPNCricinfo.

Wishing Kolkata Knight Rider’s a great come back in this 2023 TATA IPL T20!!!