In Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) which is a cricket franchise represents Kolkata city, the city of joy. This team is armed with its skipper Gautam Gambhir and coach Trevor Bayliss. The CEO of KKR is Venky Mysore. From 2012, KKR launched a marketing campaign namely ‘New Dawn. New Knights’.
Captain and Coach of Kolkata Knight Riders
Gambhir previously successfully led the Delhi Daredevil and as far as Bayliss is concerned, all it can be said that he is a former cricket player and his successful stint as coach includes his coaching of Sri Lanka between 2007 and 2011. Former cricketer Brett Lee is acting as the team’s bowling consultant who will enrich the knowledge of its team members by sharing his valuable advice.
Owners of Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR is owned by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment in association with Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jai Mehta.
Official Song of Kolkata Knight Riders
The official song of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re – a Bengali line which denotes ‘we will do it, fight for it, win it. Loaded with enthusiasm, it perfectly represents right kind of energy to win the IPL battle. The composers of this song are Vishal and Shekhar. The official colours of the team are purple and gold.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Performance in IPL 2008
KKR lovers experienced a perfect amalgamation of tension, excitement and joy for the performance of this team in IPL 2008. At first, the KKR won two matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers. Brendon McCullam, the opening batsman of team KKR made 158 runs in the first match. After losing the next four matches, the team made a comeback by winning the next three matches for the striking performance by Sourav Ganguly and Shoaib Akhtar. But the team suffered again for its poor performance in the next match against Mumbai Indians in which KKR’s score was lowest in 2008 IPL season. During its match against Delhi Daredevils, rain spoilt KKR’s plan to make it to the semi finals. Its last performance in 2008 season was against Kings XI Punjab in which KKR won.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Performance in IPL 2009
In this season of IPL, the KKR proved itself to be the weakest team by winning only three matches and losing ten matches. In this season, KKR was coached by John Buchanan . This season of IPL also witnessed Buchanon’s experiment regarding selection of the team’s captain. His ‘multiple captains theory’ created much uproar in cricket territory at that time. Finally the team’s performance was placed at the bottom of the ranking table.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Performance in IPL 2010
KKR played the IPL tournament of 2010 season under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly. KKR bought Shane Bond by spending a whooping amount of money. Dav Whatmore took the responsibility to coach the team by replacing coach John Buchanan. At the beginning of this season, KKR achieved success against Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore. But unfortunately, it went through a series of defeats by Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. Though they got success against Kings Xi Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils, but at the last stage of its performance, it was placed sixth in the points table.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Performance in IPL 2011
From this season, the name of Sourav Ganguly was dropped and Gautam Gambhir was appointed as KKR’s captain. The starting period of this season was featured with a poor performance by KKR when Chennai Super Kings defeated it by 2 runs. All the KKR lovers were delighted when it won the next three matches against Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals at Kolkata and Jaipur .After facing defeat in two consecutive matches; they made a fresh start by winning against Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and Deccan Chargers. They missed the opportunity to enter the semi-final round after defeating match against Mumbai Indians.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Performance in IPL 2012
The year of 2012, was a fruitful year for team KKR as it won the IPL trophy for the first time in the history of IPL. KKR started 2012 season by losing the first two matches against Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals. Fortunately, they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals in later stages of the tournament. After a series of defeat against several teams, the team returned to its form by defeating Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors India. Their win over these two teams paved their way to reach at semi-final level against Delhi Daredevils. Through a praiseworthy all round performance, KKR defeated Delhi Daredevils by 18 runs and reached the IPL final against Chennai Super Kings.
The electrifying final match of this session was held at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Wicket-keeper batsman Manvinder Bisla who replaced Brendon McCullum for this match, made 89 runs from 48 balls. Another Knight Jacques Kallis drew the attention of cricket lovers by making 69 runs from 49 balls. In this season, KKR made 11 half- centuries of which 6 half-centuries were scored by its skipper Gambhir. With the collective effort of KKR’s Knights, it became the winner of IPL trophy for the first time. Manvinder Bisla became the Man of the Match and it was Sunil Narine who was named as Man of the Series.
Kolkata Knight Riders 2020 Team Players
- Dinesh Karthik (Capt. & wk)
- Andre Russell
- Harry Gurney
- Kamlesh Nagarkoti
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Lockie Ferguson
- Nitish Rana
- Prasidh Krishna
- Rinku Singh
- Sandeep Warrier
- Shivam Mavi
- Shubman Gill
- Siddhesh Lad
- Sunil Narine
- Pat Cummins
- Eoin Morgan
- Varun Chakravarthy
- Tom Banton
- Rahul Tripathi
- Chris Green
- M Siddharth
- Praveen Tambe
- Nikhil Naik