The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 is going to start from March 22. The first match of this season will be played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Even before the start of the 18th season of IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders have made a big change in their team. The team has announced the inclusion of a new player in place of injured fast bowler Umran Malik.
Umran Malik out for the entire season
Even before the start of the new season of IPL 2025, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders have suffered a setback. The team’s fast bowler Umran Malik is out of the entire season due to injury . In view of his absence, KKR has included left-arm fast bowler Chetan Sakariya in the team.
Umran Malik’s exclusion is considered a big loss for KKR. His fast bowling could have proved to be important for the team. However, by including Chetan Sakariya in the team, KKR has tried to strengthen its bowling line-up.
IPL records of Chetan Sakariya
Chetan Sakariya has been included in the team by KKR for Rs 75 lakh . He did not find any buyer in the IPL 2025 auction , but KKR included him in their team as a net bowler. Now after the exclusion of Umran Malik, he has got a chance in the main team.
🚨𝗖𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘆𝗮 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗔 𝗜𝗣𝗟 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱
The left-arm fast bowler is all set to don Purple & Gold for another year 💜💛 pic.twitter.com/Zxcl0rlxat
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 16, 2025
If we talk about Chetan Sakariya’s IPL performance, he has played 19 matches so far and has taken 20 wickets . Apart from this, he has also played 1 ODI and 2 T20 matches for the Indian team . Earlier, he has been a part of the Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals teams.
Kolkata Knight Riders: IPL’s second most successful team
Kolkata Knight Riders is the second most successful team in IPL history . This franchise has won the IPL trophy **3 times so farHas won the IPL trophy 3 times .The elections were held in 2012, 2014 and 2024.
In the last season (IPL 2024) too, Kolkata Knight Riders performed brilliantly and won the trophy by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets in the final .
Kolkata Knight Riders Team: Full List of Players
HE. IS. BACK! 🔥💜 pic.twitter.com/fdfnhQvVJF
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 16, 2025
Batsman:
- Rinku Singh
- Angkrish Raghuvanshi
- Rovman Powell
- Ajinkya Rahane
- Manish Pandey
- Lavneeth Sisodia
wicket keeper:
- quinton de kock
- Rehmanullah Gurbaz
Allrounders:
- Venkatesh Iyer
- Andre Russell
- Sunil Narine
- Anukul Roy
- Ramdeep Singh
- moeen ali
Fast bowlers:
- Harshit Rana
- Vaibhav Arora
- Enrique Norkhia
- spencer johnson
- Chetan Sakariya
Spinners:
- mayank markande
- Varun Chakravarthy
KKR’s team looks strong this time too. The team has a good mix of experienced and young players. Now it remains to be seen whether KKR is able to defend its title in IPL 2025 or not .
