2021 Kolkata Knight Riders season explained

The 2021 season was the 14th season for the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). They were one of the eight teams that competed in the 2021 IPL.^[1] The franchise won the tournament in 2012 and 2014.^{[2] [3]} The team was captained by Eoin Morgan with Brendon McCullum as the team coach. They finished their 2021 IPL campaign as runners-up.

Background

Player retention and transfers

See main article: List of 2021 Indian Premier League personnel changes. The franchise retained 17 players and released six players.^[4]

Retained: Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Tim Seifert

Released: Chris Green, Harry Gurney, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Siddhesh Lad, Tom Banton

Added: Harbhajan Singh, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Venkatesh Iyer, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting

Squad

• Players with international caps are listed in bold.

No.	Name	Nationality	Birth date	Batting style	Bowling style	Year signed	Salary	Notes
Batsmen
16	Eoin Morgan		10 September 1986	Left-handed	Right-arm medium	2020		Overseas; Captain
18	Gurkeerat Singh		29 June 1990	Right-handed		2021		Replacement for Rinku Singh[5]
52			2 March 1991	Right-handed		2020
66	Karun Nair		6 December 1991	Right-handed		2021
27	Nitish Rana		27 December 1993	Left-handed		2018
35			12 October 1997	Left-handed		2018		Unavailable due to knee injury[6]
77	Shubman Gill		8 September 1999	Right-handed		2018
All-Rounders
All-Rounder
31	Ben Cutting		30 January 1987	Right-handed		2021		Overseas
75	Shakib Al Hasan		24 March 1987	Left-handed		2021		Overseas
12	Andre Russell		29 April 1988	Right-handed		2018		Overseas, Injured
15	Pawan Negi		6 January 1993	Left-handed		2021
25			25 December 1994	Left-handed		2021
26			26 November 1998	Right-handed		2018
Wicket-Keepers
Wicket-Keepers
19	Dinesh Karthik		1 June 1985	Right-handed		2018		Vice-captain
21			27 September 1986	Right-handed		2021
43	Tim Seifert		14 December 1994	Right-handed		2020		Overseas
Spin-Bowlers
3	Harbhajan Singh		3 July 1980	Right-handed		2021
74	Sunil Narine		26 May 1988	Left-handed		2018		Overseas
29	Varun Chakravarthy		29 August 1991	Right-handed		2020
23	Kuldeep Yadav		14 December 1994	Left-handed		2018
Pace Bowlers
63	Sandeep Warrier		4 April 1991	Right-handed		2019
69	Lockie Ferguson		13 June 1991	Right-handed		2019		Overseas
30	Pat Cummins		8 May 1993	Right-handed		2020		Overseas, Unavailable due to Personal reasons[7]
24	Prasidh Krishna		19 February 1996	Right-handed		2018
14			14 December 1997	Right-handed		2021
5			28 December 1999	Right-handed		2018
43	Tim Southee		11 December 1988	Right-handed		2021		Overseas, Replacement for Pat Cummins[8]
Source: KKR Players

Administration and support staff

Position	Name
Owner	Shah Rukh Khan (Red Chillies Entertainment), Jay Mehta (Mehta Group)
CEO and Managing Director	Venky Mysore
Team manager	Wayne Bentley
Head coach	Brendon McCullum
Assistant coach	Abhishek Nayar
Mentor	David Hussey
Bowling coach	Kyle Mills
Fielding coach	James Foster
Head Physiotherapist	Kamlesh Jain
Strength and Conditioning coach	Chris Donaldson
Source: KKR Staff

Kit manufacturers and sponsors

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Teams and standings

League table

League stage

The full schedule was published on the IPL website on 7 March 2021.^[9]

Matches

----------------------------------------------------

Playoffs

Eliminator----

Qualifier 2----

Final

Statistics

Most runs

No.	Name	Match	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave.	BF	SR	100s	50s	0s	4s	6s
1	Shubman Gill	17	17	0	478	94	45.11	402	118.90	0	2	0	39	11
2		17	16	2	397		28.35	283	140.28	0	2	0	41	11
3	Nitish Rana	17	16	3	383	80	29.46	314	121.97	0	2	2	34	17
4		10	10	1	370	67	41.11	288	128.47	0	4	0	37	14
5		17	15	5	223	40	22.30	170	131.17	0	0	1	22	7
6		10	9	2	183	54	26.14	120	152.50	0	1	0	14	14
7		17	16	4	133		11.08	139	95.68	0	0	4	8	6
8		7	5	2	93		31.00	56	166.07	0	1	1	5	8
9		14	10	2	62	26	7.75	47	113.91	0	0	3	3	5
10		8	6	1	47	26	9.40	48	97.91	0	0	2	3	1
11	Shivam Mavi	9	2	0	25	20	12.50	20	125.00	0	0	0	2	2

• Source: ESPNcricinfo^[10]

Most wickets

No.	Name	Match	Inns	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	BBI	Avg.	Econ.	SR	4W	5W
1		17	17	68.0	0	448	18	3/13	24.88	6.58	22.66	0	0
2		14	14	56.0	0	361	16	4/21	22.56	6.44	21.0	1	0
3		8	8	30.0	0	224	13	3/18	17.23	7.46	13.84	0	0
4		10	10	38.3	0	351	12	3/30	29.25	9.11	19.25	0	0
5		9	9	32.1	0	233	11	4/21	21.18	7.24	17.54	1	0
6		10	8	19.0	0	188	11	5/15	17.09	9.89	10.36	0	1
7	Pat Cummins	7	7	26.5	0	237	9	3/24	26.33	8.83	17.88	0	0
8		8	8	26.0	0	187	4	1/1	46.75	7.19	39.0	0	0
9	Venkatesh Iyer	10	4	8.3	0	69	3	2/29	20.00	8.11	17.00	0	0
10	Tim Southee	3	3	12.0	0	95	3	2/26	31.66	7.91	24.00	0	0

• Source: ESPNcricinfo^[11]

Player of the match awards

No.	Date	Player	Opponent	Result	Contribution	Ref.
1				Won by 10 runs	80 (56)	[12]
2				Won by 5 Wickets	47 (40)	[13]
3				Won by 9 Wickets	3/13 (4)	[14]
4				Won by 7 Wickets	1/20 (4)	[15]
5				Won by 3 Wickets	2/18 (4) and 21 (10)	[16]
6				Won by 6 Wickets	57 (51)	[17]
7				Won by 86 runs	4/21 (4 overs)	[18]
8	Eliminator			Won by 4 wickets	4/21 (4 overs) and 26 (15)	[19]
9	Qualifier 2			Won by 3 wickets	55 (41)	[20]

Notes and References

1. Web site: IPL 2021 Auction: VIVO Remains The Title Sponsor As BCCI Releases The Player Auction List. 12 February 2021. Yahoo! Cricket.
2. Web site: Kolkata Knight Riders win IPL 5, beat Chennai Super Kings. 13 October 2012. 2 June 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120602070808/http://www.ipl-schedule.net/ipl-2012-final-kolkata-knight-riders-win-ipl-5-beat-chennai-super-kings/. dead.
3. News: Records / Twenty20 matches / Team records / Most consecutive wins. ESPNcricinfo. 2 October 2014.
4. Web site: IPL 2021 PLAYER RETENTIONS LIST. 20 January 2021. 20 January 2021. IPLt20.
5. Web site: KKR sign Gurkeerat as replacement for injured Rinku. 2021-04-04. Cricbuzz. en.
6. Web site: Gurkeerat Singh Mann signs up with Kolkata Knight Riders as replacement for Rinku Singh. 2021-04-04. www.iplt20.com. en.
7. News: Pat Cummins to Jos Buttler: List of players who have pulled out of IPL 2021's 2nd leg in UAE. Times Now News. 22 August 2021.
8. Web site: KKR sign Tim Southee for remainder of IPL 2021. 26 August 2021. CricBuzz. en.
9. Web site: IPL schedule. 7 March 2021.
10. Web site: KKR Most runs in IPL 2021. 4 October 2021. ESPNcricinfo.
11. Web site: KKR Most wickets in IPL 2021. 4 October 2021. ESPNcricinfo.
12. Web site: Rana, Tripathi, Prasidh star in KKR's opening win. 11 April 2021. ESPNcricinfo. en.
13. Web site: Morgan, bowlers lift Kolkata Knight Riders off bottom of IPL points table . 26 April 2021. ESPNcricinfo. en.
14. Web site: Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell rout Royal Challengers Bangalore for 92 to set up big win . 20 September 2021. ESPNcricinfo. en.
15. Web site: Iyer, Tripathi put KKR in top four after bowlers rein Mumbai in . 24 September 2021. ESPNcricinfo. en.
16. Web site: All-star bowling, key blows from Narine and Rana give Knight Riders win . 28 September 2021. ESPNcricinfo. en.
17. Web site: Shubman Gill, bowlers boost KKR's playoffs chances . 3 October 2021 . ESPNcricinfo. en.
18. Web site: Clinical Knight Riders in line for final playoff spot after Royals demolition job . 7 October 2021 . ESPNcricinfo. en.
19. Web site: Narine stars with bat and ball, puts KKR in Qualifier 2, ends Kohli's tenure as RCB captain with defeat . 11 October 2021. ESPNcricinfo. en.
20. Web site: Rahul Tripathi's dramatic six takes nervy Knight Riders into final . 13 October 2021. ESPNcricinfo. en.