“Look at Pant, he was sending players ahead of him” - Former India batter’s scathing attack on KKR after another loss vs SRH in IPL 2025
Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag slammed the Kolkata Knight RIders (KKR) team management and coaching staff for being stubborn regarding their batting order throughout the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign. The defending champions sunk to a humiliating 110-run defeat against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi to end their campaign on a sour note.
KKR's batting took a massive toll after the mega auction as the likes of Phil Salt and Shreyas Iyer were roped in by other franchises. With Sunil Narine unable to replicate his exploits from 2024, Quinton de Kock and Venkatesh Iyer struggling for form, the explosive lower middle-order were always under pressure.
Often times the likes of Rinku Singh and Andre Russell could not face enough deliveries to make an impact as there was no real consistency regarding their entry points.
Virender Sehwag cited the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as prominent examples who have shuffled their batting order around in a bid to find their ideal combination.
"It is not written anywhere that a captain has to bat in the top three. Look at Pant, he was sending players ahead of him, because they were in form, and LSG took advantage of that. KKR could have done the same. This was the team management and the coaching staff's responsibility," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
"See, even CSK did it against GT. Shivam Dube and Dewald Brevis came up the order, they changed that up from the recent matches. Urvil Patel has also come in, he playing at No.3, so they have tried out such changes," he added.
KKR are placed in the eighth spot in the points table with 12 points to their name and a net run-rate of -0.305. They could potentially finish seventh if LSG loses to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the final game of the league stage.
"Throughout the season, we had our moments" - KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane after a sour end to their IPL 2025 campaign
KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane was the sole player in the team to cross the 300-run mark for the season. Angkrish Raghuvanshi was the second highest run scorer, capping a decent season despite having to play in a batting position he is not quite familiar with.
"Throughout the season, we had our moments, two or three close games which we didn't win. We had our chances, we tried our best, we got to be switched on a tournament like IPL," Rahane said during the post-match presentation after the loss to SRH.
SRH ended their season with three wins in a row to be placed sixth on the table, but could go one spot below if LSG defeat RCB. The Orange Army arguably were a different team altogether since their washed-out home clash against the Delhi Capitals (DC), and benefited from the one-week break.