WATCH - KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane offers worship ahead of title-defending IPL 2025 season
The KKR side has reached Eden Gardens ahead of the season opener.
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are among the most successful IPL teams with three titles under their belt in the cash-rich league. Their third and latest IPL trophy came in 2024, where Shreyas Iyer led the side to an emphatic win by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the grand finale. However, in 2025, veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane has been handed over the captaincy reins as Iyer was not retained.
Rahane has already joined the KKR camp, ahead of the season opener on March 22 in Kolkata. In fact, the majority of the squad has been sweating it out to defend the title in 2025. Now, as a ceremonial start to their campaign, the players and support staff offered prayers at the Eden Gardens, their home ground. A religious practice of breaking a coconut on the ground and offering a garland at the wickets, in a bid to mark the best of the beginnings, was performed by the team.
A video of the same was uploaded by KKR on their social media handles, where star players like Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, and head coach Chandrakant Pandit are also visible among others. "Shubho Aarombo," they captioned the post in Bangla with a 'Namaste' and a 'flower' emoji, uploaded on 'X', formerly known as Twitter.
Watch the video here
1.8K
158The Knight Riders arrived in hometown Kolkata ahead of the upcoming tournament and held their first-ever training camp at the venue on Wednesday, March 12. Apart from those aforementioned, star players like Manish Pandey, Quinton de Kock, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, and Anrich Nortje were also seen hitting it hard at the nets in the session.
Speaking of KKR's schedule, they will be facing rivals Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Saturday, March 22 in the tournament opener. After playing a couple of away games at Guwahati (vs Rajasthan Royals) and Mumbai (vs Mumbai Indians), the team will then host their 2024 finale opposition Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens.
Their next home fixtures will be against Lucknow Super Giants (April 06), Gujarat Titans (April 21), Punjab Kings (April 26), Rajasthan (May 04) and Chennai Super Kings (May 07). Both of their last league stage games will be away games against SRH and Bengaluru. The side will be focussing on qualifying for the Playoffs to feature in the latter stages of the 2025 edition, and hopefully, lift the silverware yet again.
Download Our App