Aakash Chopra, the ex-India player, thinks the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have a super strong middle order, which will be a big plus for them in IPL 2025. He mentioned that Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, and Ramandeep Singh could be the best players batting at numbers 5 to 7 in the upcoming Indian Premier League.
KKR kept Rinku (₹13 crore), Russell (₹12 crore), and Ramandeep (₹4 crore), along with Sunil Narine (₹12 crore), Varun Chakaravarthy (₹12 crore), and Harshit Rana (₹4 crore), before the IPL 2025 auction.
Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel that KKR did a good job keeping most of their main players and their strong middle order, which are two good things for them going into IPL 2025.
They tried hard to keep their main team together, and I think they did a pretty good job. They probably didn’t like that Shreyas Iyer and Mitchell Starc left, but they kept most of the others. They made good choices in keeping players and spent a good amount to get Venkatesh Iyer, he said.
Their middle order is explosive. Rinku, Ramandeep, and Russell are great at finishing matches. Ramandeep has been in good form lately, and Rinku Singh will want to do well since he hasn’t had many chances. Russell always performs well. They might just be the best in the tournament at those batting positions – five, six, and seven, Chopra added.
Andre Russell scored 222 runs with a strike rate of 185.00 in nine innings when KKR won the title in IPL 2024. Rinku Singh scored 168 runs at a strike rate of 148.67 in 11 innings last season, and Ramandeep Singh hit 125 runs at a strike rate of 201.61 in nine hits.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra said that the Kolkata Knight Riders have a strong spin-bowling team with Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine.
Their spin team is one of the best in the tournament. You might think Axar-Kuldeep and Ashwin-Jadeja are the best, but these guys are not far behind. No one can play Varun Chakaravarthy well. Sunil Narine is still doing great and isn’t losing his form, he said.
The former KKR player added that the defending champions have a number of all-rounders and a pretty good top order.
This team has all-rounders, which they usually do, and their top-order batting looks solid. There’s no problem there because they have Quinton de Kock, Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi/Manish Pandey, whoever they decide to play. It’s actually a very good batting order, Chopra said.
KKR has two of the best T20 all-rounders in Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, with Rovman Powell and Moeen Ali as good backups. Besides Narine as a possible opener, the three-time champions have good top-order batting options in Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, and Manish Pandey.
