On April 14, 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders were one of the in-form sides in the IPL. They were sitting comfortably towards the top end of the table with three wins from four matches and were slowly building towards what turned out to be a title-winning campaign.

Fast forward to 2026, and on the same date, KKR remained rooted to the bottom of the IPL table with just one point from five games. The performance in the loss against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk encapsulated what their season has been so far. While the bowling delivered, the batting once again struggled to live up to its big-name firepower, and they failed to chase down a below-par target.

Looking at what has happened this season, there can be a bit of sympathy towards the three-time IPL champions. They lost Mustafizur Rahman before the season even started for reasons out of their control and then saw Harshit Rana and Akash Deep ruled out for the season with injuries. Matheesha Pathirana, bought for Rs. 18 crores, is yet to play for the team.

Despite all this, once the season begins, teams are expected to find the right combination by the time five matches are done and dusted. Yet, KKR are still scurrying to find the right one.

Finn Allen has failed to live up to the hype, Cameron Green doesn’t look like a Rs. 25.2 crore buy, and the middle order doesn’t look scary enough since Andre Russell’s retirement. The poor form of Rinku Singh has only compounded the issue.

The bowling can be forgiven for being inexperienced, but veterans like Varun Chakravarthy are yet to step up.

So, who do we blame this debacle on? Is it the owners who invested close to Rs. 64 crores during the mega auction, or the think tank that has failed to inspire the players?

The easiest option is to target the captain, Ajinkya Rahane—but is he the only one to blame?

ALL THE BLAME ON RAHANE?

The Mumbai batter is one cricketer who carries a big reputation. A dependable middle-order batter in Tests and a successful skipper in the red-ball format for India, the IPL is one place where Rahane has remained an enigma.

After a good stint with RR, he has since moved around teams. He reinvented himself at CSK, which prompted KKR to bring him in during the IPL 2025 season as their captaincy option after missing out on big names like KL Rahul and former skipper Shreyas Iyer.

But KKR knew what they were getting with Rahane as a skipper. He may have been successful in Tests, but the IPL has always been a different ball game.

His win rate was already below 50 percent, and it has taken a further hit after the CSK game. Rahane has captained in 43 IPL matches and lost 27 of them, with a win percentage of 32.55.

So they carried this risk from last season, and their title defence ended with an eighth-place finish. This season, the Mumbai batter seems to have been affected by the noise around him before the campaign began. He was labelled a weak link by some, and it appears to have had an impact.

He responded strongly during a press conference after KKR’s loss to SRH, claiming people are jealous of him. Then came the howler against PBKS, where he opted to bat first on a track that had been under covers for a long time. Kolkata were saved by rain that day.

When it comes to batting, despite his claims of maintaining a higher strike rate, the CSK game showed that his approach seems outdated.

This was the second chase where Rahane’s lack of intent affected the team. Against SRH, he was dismissed for 8 off 10 balls, and against CSK, he scored 28 off 22 balls after coming in during the second over.

Across five matches, Rahane has struck just seven sixes and, more surprisingly, only eight fours. Another major issue is his position in the team, which creates a block for others.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi has been one of the shining lights, scoring 182 runs from five matches. But having both him and Rahane in the XI creates a middle-order block that hurts KKR when acceleration is needed.

The same applies to Green, who has excelled in the IPL when batting higher up the order. With Rahane at No.3 at Chepauk, Green dropped to No.5, where his weakness against spin was exposed.

REPLACE RAHANE?

If KKR decide to move on from Rahane, they could bring in either Tejasvi Singh or Sarthak Ranjan. Tejasvi is a lower-order hitter known for his six-hitting in the Delhi Premier League, while Ranjan impressed higher up the order during intra-squad games and scored 449 runs in 9 matches in DPL 2025.

However, the biggest factor working in Rahane’s favour is KKR’s lack of leadership options. Rinku, the vice-captain, is out of form and struggling to justify his place.

The next option is Rovman Powell, who had a decent stint as West Indies’ T20I captain. But he hasn’t led in the IPL and seems more like a rotation option than a guaranteed starter.

Sunil Narine did well in a brief stint as stand-in skipper against DC.

All this gives Rahane something of a free pass, at least for now.

WHAT ABOUT THE REST?

KKR’s struggles are also down to the supporting cast. Allen hasn’t batted outside the powerplay this season, while Green has managed just 56 runs in five matches.

Rinku has scored 78 runs in the same period and hasn’t registered a fifty since 2023.

The bowling unit was expected to be led by Vaibhav Arora as the senior figure. While he aspires to be the Bumrah of KKR, he struggles when there is no swing on offer. Even then, some of his plans to certain batters leave a lot to be desired.

Coming to the backroom staff, KKR arguably have the most high-profile group in the IPL this season. Shane Watson and Dwayne Bravo are serial winners, Russell has been synonymous with Kolkata, and Abhishek Nayar’s work with players like Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul is well documented. Tim Southee is a legend.

But collectively, they don’t seem to be driving change. Bravo was criticised by KKR fans for attending a CSK legends event instead of focusing on the team.

He was proactive as a mentor for Chennai, often directing from the boundary line, but that element appears to be missing with KKR.
Nayar, meanwhile, hasn’t been able to alter the batting approach in crucial chases, especially during the middle overs. KKR had the lowest number of sixes in overs 7 to 15 last season (35), and that trend has continued. This reflects an inability to evolve their approach.

ANY HOPE FOR KKR?

KKR can still find hope. They were in a similar position in 2021 before making a run to the final—but that required bold decisions.
Back then, they promoted a young Venkatesh Iyer to open with Shubman Gill. Similar moves are common in the IPL, and KKR need one quickly.

One option could be opening with Allen or Seifert alongside Green.

“I think his best spot would be to open the batting,” Aaron Finch, former Australian captain and ESPNcricinfo expert, told the media during IPL 2026 rivalry week. “Coming in through the middle and being exposed to top-quality spin is a really difficult change for a top-order player.”

This would push Rahane to No.3, but his intent would need to change—targeting bowlers more and going for boundaries. Rajat Patidar is a good example, having reinvented himself with clean, attacking strokes.

If that means dropping Green, KKR could use Seifert and Allen at the top, replicating New Zealand’s T20 World Cup 2026 template.

However, with Pathirana still unavailable, this could create the same imbalance that hurt KKR earlier in the season.

It may also be time to back youth by bringing in Tejasvi Singh and using him as a wicketkeeper. If that works, KKR could free up a slot to bring in Pathirana later and strengthen the bowling.

If they decide to take the bold call of dropping Rahane, it would remove the middle-order block and allow another Indian batter—perhaps Ranjan or Manish Pandey—to come in.

They could even hand the captaincy to Rinku and look for a fresh direction.

KKR need change, and time is running out. After investing Rs. 64 crore, finishing with the wooden spoon would be the ultimate insult for one of the IPL’s original franchises.

IPL 2026 | IPL Schedule | IPL Points Table | IPL Player Stats | Purple Cap | Orange Cap | IPL Videos | Cricket News | Live Score

– Ends

Tune In