Kolkata Knight Riders

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is an Indian Premier League franchise representing Kolkata. The team was founded in 2008 with one of the primary objectives to develop and nurture uncapped Indian players. They won the 2012 and 2014 editions of the IPL under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir. The team has a powerful batting line-up especially and always backs the players that have been in red-hot form. However, during the initial years of the league, the team struggled and finished last in the 2009 season. But as Gautam Gambhir took up the captaincy, the fortune of the team changed and they made it to the playoffs for the first time in 2011.

KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) Team Owner

Companies like Red Chillies Entertainment company and Mehta Group are the owners of Kolkata Knight Riders and the partners are Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla’s husband. Currently, Shahrukh Khan owns 55% of the team whereas the Mehta group owns 45% of the team. In 2008, the team was bought for a whopping amount of $75.09 million.

Kolkata Knight Riders have always been a team that is known for nurturing the youngsters and making sure that they perform on the big stage. Players like Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav, Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer and many others have performed in international matches after coming to Kolkata Knight Riders.

KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) Brand Value

The city of joy, Kolkata has been blessed with the team Kolkata Knight Riders which has always got the best players in the world. Players like Gautam Gambhir, Chris Gayle and many more have played for the team. Currently, their brand value is ₹629 Cr and is expected to grow even more if they manage to get some quality players in the IPL Auction. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic, their brand value has been impacted and now they will be looking to recover the amount that they lost.

Performance of KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) over the years

The team of Kolkata has always tried their best to get the expected results but the real situation hasn’t been the same because of the way the players have played in some seasons and hence Kolkata has been disappointing in many of the seasons. However, if overall performances are to be considered, then they have been in the top 3 franchises of the Indian Premier League.

Year	IPL (Indian Premier League) Performance
2008	League Stage (6th)
2009	League Stage (8th)
2010	League Stage (6th)
2011	Playoffs (4th)
2012	Champions
2013	League Stage (7th)
2014	Champions
2015	League Stage (5th)
2016	Playoffs (4th)
2017	Playoffs (3rd)
2018	Playoffs (3rd)
2019	League Stage (5th)
2020	League Stage (5th)
2021	Runners-up
2022	League Stage (7th)

IPL 2008 Season

In the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League, Kolkata had one of the best teams in the tournament but still, they failed to make it to the playoffs. In that season, they played 14 matches and they won only 6 out of them. They lost 7 matches and one match ended with no result. They finished at the sixth position in the points table during that season.

IPL 2009 Season

The 2009 season was one of the worst seasons for the Kolkata Knight Riders team. Despite having players like Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Ashok Dinda and others players, they still finished at the last position in the points table. They played 14 matches and were able to win only 3 of them. They lost the remaining 10 matches and one ended with no result.

IPL 2010 Season

In the 2010 IPL season, Kolkata Knight Riders had the exact cut-copy-paste of the 2008 season where they finished at the sixth position in the points table. In this season, they played 14 matches and were able to win only 7 of them. They lost the other 7 matches and thus finished at the sixth position in the points table. This wasn’t a good season for the team and hence they had to come up with better plans for the next season

IPL 2011 Season

The IPL 2011 season was finally the season that showed the world what KKR is capable of as they finished at the fourth position in the points table under Gautam Gambhir's captaincy. They played 14 matches and won 8 of them. However, they lost the other 6 matches and were knocked out after losing to Mumbai Indians in the eliminator. Despite losing in the eliminator, Gautam Gambhir gave a fighting spirit to the team which helped them win 2 out of the next 3 seasons on the trot.

IPL 2012 Season

The IPL 2012 season was the best year for the Kolkata Knight Riders team as they won their maiden IPL title by beating Chennai Super Kings in the Finals. During the league stage, they finished at the second position in the points table as they played 16 games and won 10 of them. Gautam Gambhir led the team well and got them a maiden IPL title for the team and started his legacy as a captain.

IPL 2013 Season

After winning the title in the 2012 season, Kolkata Knight Riders had a poor 2013 season as they failed to defend their title against 8 other teams. They played 16 matches and were able to win only 6 of them. They lost 10 matches and finished at the seventh spot in the points table. This was a disappointing season for the Men in Purple.

IPL 2014 Season

The IPL 2014 season was the second-best season for the Kolkata Knight Riders team as they won their second IPL title after beating Kings XI Punjab (Punjab Kings) in the finals. In the season, they didn't start well and had to win their last 7 games in order to qualify for the playoffs. They won all their games and finished at the second position to enter the Playoffs.

IPL 2015 Season

IPL 2015 season didn't have much for the Kolkata Knight Riders team as they failed to defend their title again. They finished at the fifth position in the points table and were not able to make it to the Playoffs. In the 14 matches that they played, they were able to win only 7 of them and lost the 6 matches. One match ended with no result and thus they were out of the competition.

IPL 2016 Season

In the 2016 IPL Season, Kolkata Knight Riders played well and made their way to the Playoffs. They played 14 matches and won 8 out of them and thus they were at the fourth spot in the points table. However, they lost the eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad and were out of the competition in that season.

IPL 2017 Season

In the IPL 2017 season, Kolkata Knight Riders performed the same as they did in 2016. However, this time, the only change was that they managed to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator and knocked them out of the tournament. They finished at the fourth spot in the points table again but were not able to make it to the Finals of the season.

IPL 2018 Season

In the IPL 2018 season, Kolkata Knight Riders continued their good form as they again got into the playoffs for the third consecutive time. They finished at the third position in the points table as they won 8 games out of the 14 that they played. In the Playoffs, they lost against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Qualifier 2 and were knocked out.

IPL 2019 Season

The 2019 season ended in a disappointing way for the Men in Purple as they failed to make it to the playoffs for the first time in the last four seasons. During the league stage, they played 14 matches and were able to win only 6 of them. However, Sunrisers Hyderabad were in the same position but because of their better Net Run Rate during the league stage, they made it to the next round of the league. Kolkata Knight Riders ended their season with a disappointment.

IPL 2020 Season

The IPL 2020 Season ended in the same way as the 2019 season ended for the Kolkata Knight Riders as they again missed out on a playoff berth because of the Net Run Rate. During the league stage, they played 14 matches and were able to win only 7 of them which resulted in 14 points but not a good Net Run Rate. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to get a better Net Run Rate and hence they made it to the next round of the Indian Premier League in that season.

IPL 2021 Season

The 2021 IPL Season saw Kolkata Knight Riders coming close in winning their third IPL title but somehow they lost in the IPL Finals against Chennai Super Kings. During that season, they were able to win only 2 matches out of the 7 they played. But they turned things upside down in the other 7 matches and made it to the playoffs as they finished at the fourth position in the points table. They managed to win the eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore and even defeated Delhi Capitals in the Qualifier 2 but they lost against Chennai Super Kings in the finals.

IPL 2022 Season

The IPL 2022 season was conducted after a mega auction happened in which many players found a new team and Kolkata Knight Riders also got a new captain as Shreyas Iyer. After making Delhi Capitals reach the final in 2020, Kolkata had big expectations from him but he failed badly. Though he performed with the bat but never got support from the other end and hence despite having star players like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and many more, Kolkata failed to qualify for the playoffs and finished on the seventh position in the points table.

Stats of Kolkata Knight Riders Players

The first match of the Indian Premier League saw one of the finest innings of the tournament from Brendon McCullum who played for Kolkata Knight Riders and scored 158 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, after that no player from the KKR side has reached the three figures. Apart from it, there have been some legendary players from the KKR side like Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Brett Lee and many more who have given enough memories to cherish to the KKR fans.

Top Run Scorers for Kolkata Knight Riders

Name of the Player	Matches Played	Runs Scored	Average	Strike Rate
Gautam Gambhir	122	3345	31.26	124.72
Robin Uthappa	91	2649	31.53	135.84
Yusuf Pathan	122	2061	30.30	135.94
Andre Russell	97	2042	30.93	179.12
Nitish Rana	74	1744	27.68	135.61

Top Wicket Takers for Kolkata Knight Riders

Name of the Player	Matches Played	Wickets Taken	Average	Economy
Sunil Narine	157	170	23.45	6.55
Andre Russell	97	90	22.83	8.96
Piyush Chawla	76	71	28.49	8.24
Umesh Yadav	60	64	27.73	8.31
Jacques Kallis	70	48	28.77	7.58

Being one of the most successful teams in the history of the Indian Premier League, the fans will be expecting something much better from the team in the upcoming seasons as they have the potential to win the match and hence the players will look to play well and to finally win that title for the first time since 2014. Currently, with the players like Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson and many more, the owners will be hoping for a better performance from the team and hence will hope to win the title.