Kolkata Knight Riders - Successful Campaign in IPL Cricket

This blog will discuss the roller coaster ride journey of the Kolkata or Shreyas Iyer IPL Team in IPL Cricket, its historical background, team recognition, home ground & Fan support, performances in the previous seasons, top performers, and rivalries in the league.

Kolkata Knight Riders are among the champions of IPL who have lifted the IPL trophy 2 times in 2012 and 2014 respectively. The Knight Riders team represents the Bengal state of India and plays its home matches at Historic Eden Gardens Stadium Kolkata. This team has built a strong fanbase not only in India but also across other countries as the owners of the team have bought teams in other major T20 tournaments in different countries.

A Quick History of Kolkata Knight Riders

In September 2007, the BCCI introduced the Indian Premier League (IPL), a fast and exciting cricket competition starting in 2008. Teams from eight Indian cities, including Bangalore, were sold in an auction in Mumbai on February 20, 2008. Vijay Mallya bought the Bangalore team for $111.6 million, the second-highest bid after Mumbai Indians.

In 2019, Royal Challengers Bangalore's brand value was estimated at ₹595 crore (US$75 million) according to a Duff & Phelps survey. The IPL aimed to bring a fresh era to cricket, and the team deals showed that people believed a lot in the league's future.

Home Ground and Fan Base of KKR

The Kolkata Knight Riders play their home games at Eden Gardens, which is a historic stadium owned by the Cricket Association of Bengal. Initially, it was the biggest cricket stadium in India with over 90,000 seats.

However, in 2011, Eden Gardens went through renovations to meet the standards set by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the Cricket World Cup. These changes reduced the seating capacity to around 68,000.

The upgraded stadium has a new clubhouse, better facilities for players, improvements to the exterior walls, and overall infrastructure enhancements. The fans of Shreyas Iyer IPL Team appear in thousands of numbers to spectate the match of their home team and the whole stadium echoes with the team anthem and passionate cheers.

Captains & Legendary Players who played for KKR

Player	Matches	From	To	Won	Lost	Win%
Sourav Ganguly	27	2008	2010	13	14	44.44
Brendon McCullum	13	2009	2009	3	9	23.07
Gautam Gambhir	122	2011	2017	69	59	56.55
Jacques Kallis	2	2011	2011	1	1	50
Dinesh Karthik	37	2018	2020	19	17	51.35
Eoin Morgan	24	2020	2021	11	12	45.83
Shreyas Iyer	14	2022	Present	6	8	42.85
Nitish Rana	14	2023	2023	6	8	42.85

Notable Players:

Indian Players:

Sourav Ganguly

Gautam Gambhir

Suryakumar Yadav

Yusuf Pathan

Robin Uthhapa

Manish Pandey

Dinesh Karthik

Umesh Yadav

Ashok Dinda

Aakash Chopra

Overseas Players:

Chris Gayle

Jacques Kallis

Shoaib Akhtar

Brendon McCullum

Shakib Ul Hassan

Shane Bond

Ryan ten Desochate

Brett Lee

Mark Boucher

Morne Morkel

Season-wise Performance of Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Team

Indian Premier League

IPL Season	Final Standings	Win	Loss	Total	Summary
2008	6th	6	7	14	Group-Stage
2009	8th	3	10	14	Group-Stage
2010	6th	7	7	14	Group-Stage
2011	4th	8	7	15	Playoffs
2012	1st	12	5	18	Champions
2013	7th	6	10	16	Group-Stage
2014	1st	11	5	16	Champions
2015	5th	7	6	14	Group-Stage
2016	4th	8	7	15	Playoffs
2017	3rd	9	7	16	Playoffs
2018	3rd	9	7	16	Playoffs
2019	5th	6	8	14	Group-Stage
2020	5th	7	7	14	Group-Stage
2021	2nd	9	8	17	Runners-up
2022	7th	6	8	14	Group-Stage
2023	7th	6	8	14	Group-Stage
Total		120	117	241	2 times Champions

Champions League T20

CLT Season	Final standing	League standing
2011	League stage	5th out of 10
2012	League stage	6th out of 10
2013	Did Not Qualify
2014	Runners-up	2nd out of 10

Top Performers for Kolkata In IPL Cricket

Most Runs For KKR

Period	Player	Matches	Runs	Innings
2011–2017	Gautam Gambhir	108	3,035	108
2014–2019	Robin Uthappa	86	2,439	84
2014–2023	Andre Russell	98	2,084	85
2018–2023	Nitish Rana	81	1,925	77
2011–2017	Yusuf Pathan	106	1,893	91

Most Wickets For KKR

Period	Player	Matches	Wickets	Average
2012-2023	SP Narine	171	181	24.14
2014-2023	AD Russell	111	97	22.95
2014-2019	PP Chawla	76	71	28.49
2014-2023	UT Yadav	68	65	30.21
2020-2023	CV Varun	55	61	25.65

Kolkata Knight Riders' Rivalries:

Knight Riders or Shreyas Iyer IPL Team has always been a dangerous side for any IPL team on any day and due to their high valuation, this team has bitter rivals in the IPL Cricket.

Rivalry with Royal Challengers Bangalore:

In the very first IPL Cricket match ever played, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR or Shreyas Iyer IPL Team) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) faced off. It was a memorable match where Brendon McCullum from KKR played an outstanding inning, smashing a century and giving a tough time to the RCB team. Since that exciting match, a rivalry between KKR and RCB started to develop.

Over the years, players from both teams have been seen having intense moments on the field. One of the most remembered incidents is a heated exchange between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir when they played for RCB and KKR, respectively. Such moments added more intensity and excitement to the rivalry between these two teams.

Rivalry with Mumbai Indians:

The Mumbai Indians and Shreyas Iyer IPL Team share a strong rivalry in the IPL Cricket. These teams have a significant presence in Indian cricket because they represent major cricket markets in Mumbai and Kolkata. When they face each other, the matches are always exciting, and the fans ensure that the home team receives solid support from their side.

The intensity of their rivalry heightened in 2012 when Kolkata eliminated Mumbai in the playoffs. The tension reached another level when the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, Bollywood Superstar Shahrukh Khan, got into a dispute with security staff and walked onto the playing field at the Wankhede Cricket Stadium in Mumbai. Following this incident, Shahrukh Khan faced a ban from entering the stadium, adding more drama to the already heated competition between the two teams.