Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are two-time IPL champions, having won the tournament in 2012 and 2014 under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir. It was a complete overhaul for the franchise, which is part of Indian Premier League history, having played the very first match of the tournament in 2008.
However, since the departure of Gambhir from the franchise, KKR has made it to the playoffs thrice in 2016, 2017 and 2018, but have finished 5th on the points table in the last two seasons.
IPL 2020 saw KKR changing their captain midway in the tournament with Dinesh Karthik making way for England’s Eoin Morgan. They were hampered by fitness issues to two of their best players in Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.
The franchise did well in the IPL 2021 auction, acquiring services of Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, welcomed back Shakib Al Hasan. Apart from these buys, KKR also added the likes of Sheldon Jackson, Pawan Negi, and Venkatesh Iyer to their squad, further strengthening it and filling gaps left by their releases before the auction.
KKR co-owner and actor Shah Rukh Khan has always been encouraging and supporting the team from the sidelines, even visiting UAE for the IPL 2020 edition to watch the matches of his team. He did a Twitter Q&A session on March 31 and received a couple of questions on KKR’s fortunes in the upcoming IPL 2021 tournament.
IPL 2021: COC presents the best playing XI for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for IPL 14
One fan asked for his wishes for KKR in IPL 2021 and Shah Rukh replied, “They should all be healthy and entertain us with their cricket....and put their best effort forward.”
Another fan asked whether KKR will bring the cup home this year and Shah Rukh said that they should, as he would like to drink coffee from it.
“I hope so. I want to start drinking coffee in that only!,” SRK replied.
The official Twitter handle of KKR quoted SRK's above tweet with a fingers-crossed emoji.
KKR will begin their IPL 2021 campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 11 in Chennai.
