Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders will play the first match of IPL 2025 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 22 - here's the predicted playing XI for KKR including impact player options.
KKR's squad for IPL 2025
KKR let go of their title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer and have appointed Ajinkya Rahane as their leader for IPL 2025. The compostion of their playing XI is more or less similar to what it was last season, with lots of all-round options present.
Their overseas player include Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Moeen Ali, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Rovman Powell.
Find the more details on the complete Kolkata Knight Riders squad for IPL 2025 here.
KKR predicted XI for IPL 2025
Sunil Narine had his best season with the bat last year. KKR would most probably open the batting with him again alongside Quinton de Kock who will double up as the wicketkeeper. Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer can switch around at No.3 and 4 based on left-right combinations, followed by the middle order core of Rinku Singh, Russell, and Ramandeep Singh.
Read more: IPL 2025 power rankings: Punjab Kings the best placed side
In the bowling attack, Nortje will replace Mitchell Starc from last season, while the Indian contingent of Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, and Varun Chakravarthy remains the same.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi will be the frontrunner to be the impact player, especially if KKR lose early wickets. The other batting impact player option KKR will have is Manish Pandey, while on sluggish surfaces they can use Mayank Markande or Anukul Roy as the extra spin option.
Predicted first XI: Quinton de Kock* (wk), Sunil Narine*, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell*, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Anrich Nortje*, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy
Impact player options (in order of priority): Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Mayank Markande, Anukul Roy, Umran Malik
*= overseas player
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
