The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) amass a star-studded team going into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. They had the biggest purse ever in an IPL mini auction and got hold of many players whom they raised the paddle for. Abhishek Nayar will be seen as the head coach of the side for the first time and he has joined the team recently. The team has been practising for a few days now, with big players slowly starting to join the camp before IPL 2026.
Now, four big names are set to join the squad ahead of the new season. ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 winner Varun Chakaravarthy headlines the incoming batch on March 19. The mystery spinner, who was retained for INR 12 crore, will join the team today (Thursday) alongside three New Zealanders in Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra and Tim Seifert. All these players played the T20 World Cup 2026 final as well in Ahmedabad. While there have been travel restrictions due to the West Asian war, there are no travel issues from New Zealand to India.
KKR training session details
All four players will be crucial for KKR’s setup this season. Chakaravarthy had a poor ending to the T20 World Cup as he was hit for quite a few runs in the second half of the tournament. Hence, the Indian star would love to have enough practice under him before the season kicks off for KKR. Meanwhile, either Allen or Seifert are expected to start as opener for KKR alongside captain Ajinkya Rahane. Rachin is expected to be a player for tricky wickets only, a role that was donned for a couple of years by Moeen Ali.
Meanwhile, the Knight Riders will hold a full-fledged training session today. The practice will begin at 5 PM IST at the Eden Gardens today after a brief gym session between players and support staff in the afternoon. It is uncertain that Chakaravarthy, Allen, Seifert and Rachin will take part in today’s practice since they will join the team in the evening itself.
However, there are still players who haven’t joined the team yet. Rinku Singh, who lost his father during the T20 World Cup, is yet to join the team. So is Rovman Powell, who got stuck in India for a week due to travel restrictions. The most expensive overseas player of all time, Cameron Green, has been in the news lately. The big Australian hasn’t joined the team yet. Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana is yet to get a clearance from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) too.
KKR IPL 2026 squad
Batters: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Cameon Green, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Rovman Powell
All-rounders: Anukul Roy, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Ramandeep Singh
Bowlers: Vaibhav Arora, Matheesha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Akash Deep, Umran Malik, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Blessing Muzarbani.
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