Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Image credit: KKR) NEW DELHI: Young batsman Angkrish Raghuvanshi made the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) management and head coach Abhishek Nayar welcome selection pain with his explosive knock in the team’s pre-season match at the Eden Gardens on Friday.Batting at No.3, the 21-year-old smashed a stunning unbeaten 103 off just 55 balls, an innings studded with nine fours and five sixes, at a pace of 187.27. His knock led the Purple Knights to a successful chase of 200 in 19.2 overs.
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Shashi Tharoor & Samson’s Redemption Story: From Failure to FameThree-time IPL champions KKR will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Mumbai Indians on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium.With few opening options and a reshuffled squad, Nayar admitted that finalizing the right combinations remains KKR’s biggest challenge ahead of the season.After overhauling their squad after a disappointing campaign in 2025, KKR have added big names like Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra but are yet to solidify their batting order.“I’m terrible at predicting what can go wrong, but all I can tell you is that I don’t know how the tournament will turn out, but I think initially it means making sure we get in shape when we play on March 29,” Nayar said during the team’s first media interaction of the season.KKR, who finished eighth last year with just five wins, are also set to field a new opening combination in the absence of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Quinton de Kock.Explosive New Zealand duo Allen and Seifert – who recently put together a record 117-run stand at the Eden Gardens to knock out South Africa in the T20 World Cup semi-final – are among the leading players.With Sunil Narine, who also opens, a certainty in the XI, picking the remaining three overseas players from a group that includes Green, Allen, Seifert, Ravindra and potentially Matheesha Pathiran presents another selection dilemma.“I think that’s the priority right now, to make sure our combinations are right. Because I always believe when you have new combinations in this IPL, it’s about making sure your team reaches the top, yes, everyone in form, but you place them well enough to succeed.”“So I think as a group that will be our first challenge and we’ll see the rest as it comes,” Nayar said.KKR’s middle-order woes last season – where positions 4 to 8 failed to deliver consistently – remain an issue. However, Nayar emphasized that past performances will have little bearing on the upcoming campaign.Citing Sanju Samson as an example, he pointed out how the wicket-keeper batsman overcame poor form ahead of the T20 World Cup and went on to deliver decisive blows in India’s title campaign.“We saw it with Sanju Samson in the World Cup as well. It’s about being there at that moment in this tournament. So we hope our players can get off to a good start.”“And if you’re in good form, it doesn’t matter what your name is in this format of the game. I think form counts a lot more than what happened in the past,” he added.“I’ve always believed that T20 cricket is a game of momentum. It’s a game of form. So what happened a year ago doesn’t really matter what happens.”“I think something that’s going to be really important is the form our guys have been in this season. And if everyone’s at the top of their game, you expect this team to do really well like they did last year. So I honestly believe it’s not so much of what’s happened in the past,” he said.
