Change and constant, two sides of the Kolkata Knight Riders narrative

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have shown they can win the Indian Premier League (IPL) but can they defend it?

- Dhiman Sarkar

KOLKATA: Going into the 18th season, only two teams have done that: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2011, Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2020. At five apiece, only CSK and MI have more titles than KKR.

In Quinton de Kock, Knights have a player who knows how it is done. De Kock was key to MI's success in 2019 and 2020, scoring over 500 runs, including four half-centuries, in each season and with a good strike rate (132.91 in 2019 and 140.50 in 2020). Each time de Kock scores over 500 runs in a season, his team makes the playoffs.

Bought for ₹3.6 crore at last November's mega auction, de Kock is among the few new players in purple. He is a like-for-like replacement for Phil Salt whom KKR had tried hard to retain. Including Venkatesh Iyer, for whom KKR paid an IPL third-highest ₹23.75 crore, the defending champions were able to do that with 13 in their 21-player roster.

"We are in a good space, carrying a lot from last year, so the guys know their roles," said Sunil Narine, KKR's all-action hero ahead of his 14th season with them.