Kolkata Knight Riders

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For other uses, see KKR (disambiguation).

Kolkata Knight Riders
কলকাতা নাইট রাইডার্স कोलकाता नाइट राइडर्स

Captain:	Gautam Gambhir
Coach:	Jacques Kallis
City:	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Colors:
Owner:	Shahrukh Khan, (Red Chillies Entertainment) Juhi Chawla, Jay Mehta(Mehta Group)
Founded:	2008
Home ground:	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Capacity:	68,000^[1]
Indian Premier League wins:	2 (2012, 2014)
CLT20 wins	0
Official website:	www.kkr.in

The Kolkata Knight Riders (also known by the acronym KKR) are a cricketfranchise representing Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.The team is currently captained by Gautam Gambhir and coached by Trevor Bayliss, a former Australian cricketer. The home of the Knight Riders is Eden Gardens, the largest cricket stadium in India and the third largest in the world by seating capacity.^[2]

Although the team has gained immense popularity due to its association with celebrity owners, it was surrounded with controversy and poor on-field performance through the first three years of the tournament.^[3] The team's performance, however, improved from the fourth season as it qualified for the IPL playoffs and made it to the Champions League Twenty20. They eventually became the IPL champions for the first time in 2012, by defeating Chennai Super Kings in the final and repeated the feat in 2014, defeating Kings XI Punjab.^[4] The Knight Riders hold the record for the longest winning streak by any Indian team in T20s (14).^[5]

The leading run-scorer of the side is Gautam Gambhir,^[6] while the leading wicket-taker is Sunil Narine.^[7] The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (We will do, we will fight, we will win) and the official colors are purple and gold. The brand value of the Kolkata Knight Riders was estimated at $86 million in 2015, the highest valuation amongst all eight teams by a margin.^[3]

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Franchise history[edit]

Sourav Ganguly with the symbol of the Kolkata Knight Riders, flanked by Shahrukh Khan on the right and Gauri Khan on the left.

In 2008, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) created the cricket tournamentIndian Premier League based on the Twenty20 form of the game.^[8] Eight teams would participate in the inaugural tournament held in April – June of the same year. The teams representing the eight different cities of India were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February. The team representing Kolkata was eventually bought by Bollywood superstarShah Rukh Khan's company Red Chillies Entertainment in partnership with actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta for a price of ₹3 billion, around $75 million at that time.^[9] Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian national team, a native of West Bengal (nicknamed as Bengal Tiger, Dada or Prince of Kolkata) was named the Icon Player for the team.

The name of the team is a reference to the popular 1980s American television seriesKnight Rider.^[10] In June 2015, they bought a stake in the Caribbean Premier Leaguecricket team Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel.^[11]

Team history[edit]

2008 IPL season[edit]

Main article: 2008 Indian Premier League

The Kolkata Knight Riders made a good start the season by winning their first two matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers. Kolkata Knight Riders' opening batsman Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs in the first match. However, the team began to experience failures and lost the next four matches. The team managed to stage a comeback of sorts by winning the next three matches, helped by strong performances by Sourav Ganguly and Shoaib Akhtar. But their performance dipped again and they lost the next three matches. These included their match againstMumbai Indians, in which they were bowled out for 67 runs, the lowest score by a team in the IPL 2008 season.^[12] When their match against Delhi Daredevils was washed out due to rain, they lost any chance of making it to the semi finals.^[13]The Knight Riders ended their season on a winning note by defeating Kings XI Punjab on their home ground.

The team faced various issues in its first season such as team composition, Ganguly's choice of batting first in the game against Chennai Super Kings, entertainment tax being imposed for matches played at Eden Gardens.^[14] Shahrukh Khan was barred by the International Cricket Council from entering the dressing room of the team when matches were in progress. He then issued a statement that he would be boycotting the remaining matches of the IPL until the code of conduct was clarified by the IPL authorities.^[15]

Financially, the Kolkata Knight Riders were easily the most successful franchise in the IPL, achieving a profit of ₹130 million(US$2.0 million) in the opening season itself.^[16]

2009 IPL season[edit]

Main article: 2009 Indian Premier League

The season is by far the worst in the history of the franchise. Kolkata Knight Riders finished at the bottom of the ranking table with three wins and ten losses including a string of nine successive defeats. KKR was among the least active franchises during the offseason, with no player trades. However, the team signed Mohnish Parmar during the offseason and also re-signed Ajantha Mendis to a long term deal.

On 18 April 2009 a blog by an anonymous author claiming to be a member of the team surfaced on the web. The blog was controversial from the start, giving unflattering nicknames to players, coaches, and owners of KKR and other teams, telling sordid stories, and showing most of them in a very negative light.^[17] The blog rapidly became popular and created a lot of media frenzy.^[17] The blog worsened an already bad season for KKR, which lost most of their games, had controversies surrounding their coach, John Buchanan, and frequently changed captains, including Sourav Ganguly and Brendon McCullum based on a series of theories discussing "multiple-captains".^[18] In August 2010, Bangalore based marketing specialist Anupam Mukerji revealed himself to be the person behind the blog. He said he had "never met a cricketer in his life", and was just making up stories. He never expected it to become this big, he remarked, adding that the Fake Player ended up getting legitimized by the media frenzy. He was inspired by the popularity of a similar blog by Fake Steve Jobs, and the Richard Gere movie The Hoax.^[19]^[20]^[21]

KKR also set up a Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW) in 2009 to spot local talent nationwide. This was based onBCCI's 2002–06 model which had discovered talents like MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina. The wing was headed by Makarand Wainganker, who had first initiated the TRDW concept for the KSCA.^[22] However, Wainganker eventually resigned after persistent disagreements with John Buchanan over team selection and Buchanan's "multiple captains" theory.^[23] KKR were the first team in IPL to select their cheerleaders by a talent hunt show called Knights and Angels, judged by Sourav Gangulyand other guest stars and hosted by Bollywood actor Purab Kohli. However, the six girls who were part of the winning team did not get a chance to perform during the 2009 season since local authorities only allowed South African cheerleaders to be hired.^[24] Despite not performing, they were presented with the opportunity to accompany the team and watch the matches in South Africa in a nine days all-expense paid trip.^[24]

Despite the poor on field performance of the team and its struggle at the bottom of the points table, the Kolkata Knight Riders has been ranked as the richest team in the tournament with a brand value of $42.1 million.^[25] The study conducted by a UK-based international brand valuation consultancy took into account various revenue lines such as broadcasting, IPL sponsorship, team sponsorship, merchandising and gate receipts as well as the effect of performance, the catchment population of the city, the capacity of the stadium and the presence of iconic players.^[25]

2010 IPL season[edit]

Main article: 2010 Indian Premier League

The Kolkata Knight Riders traded Australian all-rounder Moises Henriques for Manoj Tiwary and Owais Shah.^[26] At the Player auctions they managed to successfully buy Shane Bond in the silent tie-breaker against competing bids from Deccan Chargers for $1.3 million.^[27] Ganguly was once again given the captaincy of KKR, after the team ended at the bottom in the second season. The coach John Buchanan was replaced by Dav Whatmore.

The Kolkata Knight Riders had a fantastic start to the season with two consecutive wins against Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore. That was followed by three defeats at the hands of Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royalsand Mumbai Indians. The Knight Riders then made a come back by winning most of their homes games against Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils. Despite being tied at 14-point with The Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore, a lesser NRR meant they eventually finished sixth on the point table.

2011 IPL season[edit]

Main article: 2011 Indian Premier League

In this edition of the IPL, the Kolkata Knight Riders decided to revamp the team, starting with a new look and by changing the entire set of players. Gautam Gambhir, who was bought for a record-breaking $2.4 million was appointed as skipper. KKR also managed to buy Yusuf Pathan for $2.1 million. Other international names added to the squad inclued allroundersShakib Al Hasan and Jacques Kallis, pace bowler Brett Lee and Ryan ten Doeschate of Netherlands.^[28] Brad Haddin was replaced by Mark Boucher in mid-season due to a finger injury he sustained during practice.^[29]

The Kolkata Knight Riders had a disappointing start of season, losing to Chennai Super Kings by 2 runs. But they came back stronger, winning their next three matches against Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals at Kolkata and Jaipur respectively. After two consecutive defeats in their home ground, the team had a string of wins against Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and Deccan Chargers. They went on to win two of the remaining four matches; one against Chennai Super Kings in Kolkata and the other against Pune Warriors India in Navi Mumbai which enabled them to qualify for the playoffs for the first time.^[30] In the eliminator they lost to Mumbai Indians owing to a last over by Lakshmipathy Balaji which conceded 21 runs, losing their chance to enter the finals for the first time.^[30]

In the 2011 auctions, Sourav Ganguly was not picked by KKR, nor by any other team in the league. This created a huge uproar in Kolkata. The angry fans created a protest group called No Dada No KKR.^[31] This was followed by a silent protest rally, signature campaigns throughout the country and abroad and stadium protests.^[31] But the uproar came to a halt and the fans' reactions gradually bettered as the team's performance improved and the Eden Gardens began to witness huge capacities.^[32]^[33] KKR finished the top amongst all teams after the completion of the mid season game-play.^[30]

2011 CLT20 season[edit]

Main article: 2011 Champions League Twenty20

KKR's top four finish meant they would now participate in the qualifying stage for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, held from 19 to 21 September. Captain Gautam Gambhir wasn't able to lead the team during the qualifying stage, as he has been recovering from an injury he sustained during a Test match between India and England at The Oval. Jacques Kallis was the appointed captain in Gambhir's absence. However, Gambhir returned to lead the team in the Group stage. KKR was also without the services of Eoin Morgan, who was due to have a shoulder surgery, and Mark Boucher who was playing for Warriors.

They were drawn along with Somerset and Auckland Aces in Pool B of qualification stage. Both of their matches were initially to be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, but was later moved to the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadiumin Hyderabad. They recorded a 2-run victory in their first match against Auckland Aces, thanks to brilliant spells from Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf Pathan. Their next match against Somerset Sabres ended in an 11-run defeat. However, both teams qualified for the main tournament by finishing on a better NRR+ than Sri Lankan franchise Ruhuna Rhinos of Pool A.

The team was placed with Somerset, Southern Redbacks, Warriors and fellow IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore in Group B of the tournament. They lost their first two matches against Somerset Sabres and Southern Redbacks. They made an impressive comeback by winning the last two games, first by 9 wickets against Royal Challengers Bangalore and a rain affected 22 run victory by (D/L) against Warriors. However, despite being tied on points, they could not make the semi-final due to a lesser NRR+ than the Royal Challengers. They ended up fifth on the overall points table.

2012 IPL season[edit]

Main article: 2012 Indian Premier League

(l-r) Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta, co-owners of KKR in 2012.

Due to the disbanding of Kochi Tuskers Kerala, each team played the remaining eight teams twice, once at home and once away. Therefore, each team played 16 matches. KKR bought back Brendon McCullum for $900,000 and West Indies Sunil Narine for $700,000. They also bought South-African Marchant de Lange for $50,000. The team replaced coach Dav Whatmore by Trevor Bayliss.^[34] Kolkata Knight Riders also launched a new marketing campaign titled "New Dawn. New Knights" and a new logo.^[35]

The 2012 IPL was then the most successful season for the franchise.^[36] KKR got off to a poor start in the tournament, losing their first two games against Delhi Daredevils andRajasthan Royals. However, they fought back with consecutive wins over Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals. In the next match, however, they messed up an easy chase against Kings XI Punjab, losing narrowly by 2 runs. KKR's West Indian spinner Sunil Narine took the only five-wicket haul of the tournament (5–19) in that match and despite his team losing, he was declared as the Man of The Match. KKR then went on to win six matches in a row (except for a washed-out match against Deccan Chargers). However, the team's performances dipped in the following two matches, losing against Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Eventually the team had a timely return to form, when they beat Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors India in successive away matches, with the side bowling economically to defend average totals. This earned a second-place finish for the team at the end of the league stage and a semi-final match against Delhi Daredevils. An all-round performance from them saw Delhi being defeated by 18 runs, and KKR also qualifying for their maiden IPL final.

The final between the Knight Riders and the defending two-time champions Chennai Super Kings was held at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium.^[37] A hamstring injury to Lakshmipathy Balaji resulted in the inclusion of Brett Lee and due to him being a foreign player, the team was required to leave out their wicket-keeper batsman Brendon McCullum to maintain the cap of 4 foreign players. Manvinder Bisla was brought in to replace McCullum.^[37] The team eventually won the match with the help of some impressive batting performance by Bisla (89 from 48 balls) and Jacques Kallis (69 from 49 balls) to become the champions of the tournament for the first time.^[37] Manvinder Bisla was declared Man of the Match and Sunil Narine was named Man of the Series.^[37]

There were some eye-catching performers for KKR in IPL 5, particularly on the bowling front. Sunil Narine was the second-highest wicket-taker as well as player of the tournament, and also had the best economy rate in the tournament.^[38] The batting was led by skipper Gautam Gambhir, who was the second-highest run-getter of the tournament and scored 6 half-centuries out of a total of 11 from his team.^[39]^[40]

The state of West Bengal set up a grand felicitation involving Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee and Governor of West Bengal M K Narayanan .^[41] The Cricket Association of Bengal gifted the 17 members of the team with gold chain each and mementos.^[41] A victory parade for the team members was also organized on 28 May beginning from Hazra,Writers Building to the Eden Garden stadium where ten thousand spectators came to cheer for the team during a one-hour celebration that was compared to the India's World Cup victory lap at the Wankhede in Mumbai the year before.^[41]However, the celebration received criticism from media and certain political parties and had been ridiculed by some pools of society as it had only been organized for a club team.^[41] Shahrukh Khan, the team's co-owner and the state's brand ambassador, defended the decision."^[41]

2012 CLT20 season[edit]

Main article: 2012 Champions League Twenty20

KKR's maiden IPL victory in 2012 meant that they would now participate in the 2012 Champions League Twenty20 which was held in South Africa. They were in Group A along with Delhi Daredevils, Perth Scorchers, Auckland Aces and Titans. But disappointingly, they were eliminated in the group stage itself, winning only one game against the Titans, which they did so with a record breaking 99 run margin. This was the highest victory margin ever recorded in the CLT20 tournament. Losses to Delhi Daredevils and Auckland Aces followed by a washed out game against Perth meant that KKR finished 3rd in Group A and failed to qualify for the knock out stages of the tournament.^[42]

2013 IPL season[edit]

Main article: 2013 Indian Premier League

KKR had a disappointing IPL season in 2013, as they failed to make the play-offs, losing ten and winning only six out of their sixteen matches. Although their performance was disappointing, a few players performed really well, like Sunil Narine who took 22 wickets in 16 matches and Gautam Gambhir who made some good runs. But due to lack of rhythm and perfect combination of players, and bad form of a few players, the KKR could not win few easy matches and ended up 7/9.

2014 IPL season[edit]

Main article: 2014 Indian Premier League

Knight Riders retained only their captain Gambhir and spinner Sunil Narine as they went into the 2014 IPL auctions. They bought back Jacques Kallis, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Manvinder Bisla and Ryan Ten Doeschate. New additions to the side were Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Chris Lynnalong with some other uncapped and foreign players. KKR had a good start to the seventh edition in UAE, defeating defending champions Mumbai Indians in the inaugural match. However, their performance dipped and they won only 1 out of their next 4 games played there, including a super over tie against Rajasthan Royals, which they ultimately lost on a boundary count. Their poor form continued as they lost two more matches after they were back in India, making it five losses in seven games. The team changed their batting order, promoting Robin Uthappa as an opener which worked very well as he became the highest run scorer in the tournament with 660 runs. He also scored 40+ runs in 10 consecutive matches. Sunil Narine continued his great run, being the second highest wicket taker. Knight Riders recovered from the losing streak, winning each of their next 7 games. In their last group game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Yusuf Pathan blitzed his way to a half century off just 15 balls, which is a record in the IPL. After the group stage, they were tied at 18 points with Chennai Super Kings but beat them to the second place in points table by a better net run rate.

They played the first Qualifier at their homeground Eden Gardens against Kings XI Punjab which they won by 28 runs and entered the final for the second time in their history. In the final at Bengaluru, they met Kings XI Punjab again and defeated them by 3 wickets in a thrilling match chasing a mammoth 200, with local boy Manish Pandey delivering his best knock of the season with a brilliant 94 in 50 balls, to win their second title in 3 years. The victory was celebrated grandly in a similar fashion to their 2012 Indian Premier League title win.

Livery[edit]

Initially, when Kolkata Knight Riders were first introduced in 2008, the logo of the team consisted of a blazing golden Viking helmet against a black background with the name of the team Kolkata Knight Riders written in gold next to it. However, the black background was changed to purple in the third season. In 2012, a new logo, which consist of a blazing purpleCorinthian helmet trimmed with gold, with Kolkata Knight Rider written within a shield has been introduced.^[43] The name Knight Riders has been chosen keeping in view the kids and the youth.

The tag line of the team was "All the King's Men" during the first four season.^[44] However, in the fifth it was replaced by "New Dawn, New Knights". The team's official colours were black and gold during the first two seasons. Khan explained that "golden symbolizes spirit of life and black presents the Goddess Kali. "^[44] It was later changed to purple and gold during the third season and was kept so. The jersey was created by Bollywood fashion designer Manish Malhotra.^[44]

The main theme of the team Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo Re (We will do it, Fight for it, Win it) has been created by Vishal-Shekharduo.^[44] A Knight Rider album with several singers and music composers including Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri was also created.^[45] In 2009, A music video for one of the songs from the album, called "Too Hot, Too cool" directed by Farah Khan and featuring Khan and some of the members of the team was filmed in helipad area in Film City, Mumbai. The theme of the video centred around the African wild life as the IPL 2's venue had been shifted to South Africa at the time.^[46]

Home ground[edit]

The home venue of the Knight Riders is the iconic Eden Gardens (with the two ends of the crease called the High Court End and the Pavilion End). Owned by the Cricket Association of Bengal, it is the largest cricket stadium in India and had a seating capacity of over 90,000.^[47] In 2011, the stadium was renovated to meet the standards set by the ICC for the 2011 Cricket World Cup; reducing its capacity to around 67,000. The renovated stadium includes a new clubhouse and players' facilities, upgrading the exterior wall, cladding the existing roof structure with a new metal skin, and general infrastructure improvements.^[48] In 2013, two of the team's home matches were hosted by the JSCA International Cricket Stadium inRanchi.

Panoramic view of the Eden Gardens stadium during IPL 2008

Sponsors and partners[edit]

Finnish multinational communications corporation – Nokia was the official founding sponsor of the Kolkata Knight Riders and remained their main sponsor until 2014, while Reebok was their official kit manufacturer.^[49]^[50] In 2012, the Knight Riders had 18 sponsors, the highest among all teams.^[3] Star Plus, Kit Kat, Sprite, Gitanjali Group, SB Nation, Doublemint,Amity University, SAP AG, Fever 104 FM and Pan Vilas have formerly been their co-sponsors and partners.

As of 2015, their principal sponsor is Gionee and they have co-sponsorship deals with Royal Stag, Sansui Electric, Uber,The Telegraph, Dish TV, Seiko, Colors, Adamas University, Cosco Limited, Red FM 93.5, CK Birla Group and Pepsi among several others while U.S. Polo Assn. is their kit manufacturer.^[51]

University Partner[edit]

Kolkata Knight Riders has Amity University Kolkata as its official university partner. Amity University Worldwide and KKRhave a long-time association.

Players[edit]

Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team was the icon player and led the Kolkata franchise in the inaugural season 2008 and 2010. He was released during the 2011 season. The earlier team also included all rounders Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Angelo Mathews, wicket keeper batsmen Brendon McCullum, Wriddhiman Saha. The main bowlers are Shane Bond, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik. Australian batsmanBradley Hodge and Sri Lankan bowler Ajantha Mendis were bought outside IPL Auction in 2008.

At the 2009 auction the team bought Bangladeshi all-rounder Mashrafe Mortaza. It also includes Charl Langeveldt who was signed outside of the auction. Due to unavailability of Pakistani players in 2009, KKR had to suspend contract of key performer from the 2008 season Umar Gul.^[52]^[53] On 26 April 2009, KKR administration sent back two of its players Akash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar on the premises of poor performance.^[54] Shane Bond was the latest KKR acquisition after releasing Ricky Ponting, Morne van Wyk, Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Akhtar for IPL III. Moises Henriques was traded to Delhi in return for Owais Shah and Manoj Tiwary. Their international players for the 2010 season were – Shane Bond, Mashrafe Mortaza, Brendon McCullum, Charl Langeveldt, Ajantha Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Owais Shah and Chris Gayle.

In the 2011 season, KKR drastically revamped their squad. Former captain and icon player Sourav Ganguly was not purchased in the January auction. The team appointed Gautam Gambhir, who was bought for a record-breaking $2.4 million as skipper.^[28] Yusuf Pathan was also picked up for a whopping $2.1 million.^[28] Other international names who were added include Shakib Al Hasan, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Ryan ten Doeschate, Eoin Morgan, James Pattinson. Haddin was replaced by Mark Boucher mid-season due to injury.^[28]

In the 2012 auction, KKR bought back their former batsman, Brendon McCullum. They also acquired West Indian spinnerSunil Narine and South African fast bowler Marchant de Lange. The team later added four domestic players to their squad, including Debabrata Das and Iresh Saxena from Bengal, Saurashtra's Chirag Jani and Sanju Samson from Kerala.^[55]

In Nov 2012, KKR released four players from their team : Iresh Saxena, Chirag Jani, Sanju Samson and Jaydev Unadkat. In the 2013 auction, the team bought two overseas players, Sachithra Senanayake and Ryan McLaren.

In Feb 2014 auction, the team had only retained Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine. From the auctions that took place the team brought back Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan with their right to match (RTM) card. They also bought Ryan ten Doeschate, Morne Morkel, Patrick Cummins, Shakib Al Hasan and Chris Lynn. Prominent Indian players bought includedRobin Uthappa, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav and Piyush Chawla.

KKR's impressive additions in the 2015 auction were Australian Brad Hogg and allrounder James Neesham from New Zealand.

Seasons[edit]

Year	Indian Premier League	Champions League Twenty20
2008	League stage	DNQ
2009	League stage	DNQ
2010	League stage	DNQ
2011	Playoffs	Group stage
2012	Champions	Group stage
2013	League stage	DNQ
2014	Champions	Runners-up
2015	League stage	DNQ

Current squad[edit]

Players with international caps are listed in bold.
* denotes a player who is currently unavailable for selection.
* denotes a player who is unavailable for rest of the season.

No.	Name	Birth date	Batting style	Bowling style	Signed year	Salary	Notes
Batsmen
1	Manish Pandey	10 September 1989 (age 26)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2014	₹17 million(US$260,000)
23	Gautam Gambhir	14 October 1981(age 34)	Left-handed	Right-arm leg break	2014	₹125 million(US$1.9 million)	Captain
37	Robin Uthappa	11 September 1985 (age 30)	Right-handed	Right-armmedium	2014	₹50 million(US$750,000)	Occasional wicketkeeper
50	Chris Lynn^[a]	10 April 1990(age 25)	Right-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox	2014	₹13 million(US$200,000)	Overseas
212	Suryakumar Yadav	14 September 1990 (age 25)	Right-handed	Right-armmedium	2014	₹7 million(US$110,000)
	Vaibhav Rawal	9 November 1991(age 23)	Left-handed	Right-arm leg break	2015	₹1 million(US$15,000)
All-rounders
12	Andre Russell	29 April 1988(age 27)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	2014	₹6 million(US$91,000)	Overseas
14	Azhar Mahmood	28 February 1975(age 40)	Right-handed	Right-armmedium-fast	2015	Replacement signing	Overseas
22	Johan Botha	2 May 1982(age 33)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2015	Replacement signing	Overseas
24	Yusuf Pathan	17 November 1982(age 32)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break	2014	₹32.5 million(US$490,000)
27	Ryan ten Doeschate	30 June 1980(age 35)	Right-handed	Right-armmedium-fast	2014	₹10 million(US$150,000)	Overseas
75	Shakib Al Hasan	24 March 1987(age 28)	Left-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox	2014	₹28 million(US$420,000)	Overseas
	Aditya Garhwal	15 April 1996(age 19)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break googly	2015	₹2.5 million(US$38,000)
	Sumit Narwal	16 April 1982(age 33)	Left-handed	Right-armmedium-fast	2015	₹1 million(US$15,000)
	James Neesham^[b]	17 September 1990 (age 25)	Left-handed	Right-armmedium-fast	2015	₹5 million(US$75,000)	Overseas
Wicket-keepers
25	Sheldon Jackson	27 September 1986 (age 29)	Right-handed		2015	₹1.5 million(US$23,000)
Bowlers
11	Veer Pratap Singh	3 May 1992(age 23)	Right-handed	Right-armmedium-fast	2014	₹4 million(US$60,000)
18	Kuldeep Yadav	14 December 1994(age 20)	Left-handed	Slow left-arm chinaman	2014	₹4 million(US$60,000)
19	Umesh Yadav	25 October 1987(age 28)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2014	₹26 million(US$390,000)
21	Piyush Chawla	24 December 1988(age 26)	Left-handed	Right-arm leg break	2014	₹42.5 million(US$640,000)
30	Pat Cummins	8 May 1993(age 22)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	2014	₹10 million(US$150,000)	Overseas
31	Brad Hogg	6 February 1971(age 44)	Left-handed	Slow left-arm chinaman	2015	₹5 million(US$75,000)	Overseas
65	Morne Morkel	6 October 1984(age 31)	Left-handed	Right-arm fast	2014	₹28 million(US$420,000)	Overseas
74	Sunil Narine	26 May 1988(age 27)	Left-handed	Right-arm off break	2014	₹95 million(US$1.4 million)	Overseas
94	KC Cariappa	13 April 1994(age 21)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break	2015	₹24 million(US$360,000)

Jump up^ ruled out of the season based on injury report
Jump up^ ruled out of the season based on injury report

Administration and support staff[edit]

Owners – Shahrukh Khan (Red Chillies Entertainment) - 55% shareholder, in partnership with Jay Mehta and Juhi Chawla (Mehta Group) - 45% shareholder^[56]
Brand ambassador – Shahrukh Khan
CEO and Managing Director – Venky Mysore^[57]^[58]
Director – Joy Bhattacharya
Coach – Jacques Kallis
Assistant coach – Simon Katich
Batting consultant and mentor – Jacques Kallis
Bowling coach and mentor – Wasim Akram
Batting advisor – W. V. Raman
Physiotherapist – Andrew Leipus
Physical trainer – Adrian Le Roux
Data & video analyst – AR Srikkanth^[59]
Mental skills coach – Rudi Webster
Motivational advisor – Mike Horn

Head coaches

John Buchanan - 2008-2009
Dav Whatmore - 2010-2011
Trevor Bayliss - 2012–2015^[60]
Jacques Kallis - 2015–present^[61]

Fixtures and results[edit]

Overall results[edit]

IPL Summary of results
Year	Played	Wins	Losses	Tied	NR	Win %	Position
2008	14	6	7	0	1	46.16	6/8
2009	14	3	9	1	1	23.07	8/8
2010	14	7	7	0	0	50.00	6/8
2011	15	8	7	0	0	53.33	4/10
2012	18	12	5	0	1	70.58	1/9
2013	16	6	10	0	0	37.50	7/9
2014	16	11	4	1	0	68.75	1/8
2015	14	7	6	0	1	53.84	5/8
Total	121	60	55	2	4	51.28

Abandoned matches are counted as NR (no result)
Win or Loss by Super Over or Boundary Count are counted as Ties