The 2026 season was Kolkata Knight Riders' nineteenth appearance in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They were one of the ten cricket teams that competed in the 2026 IPL. The team was captained by Ajinkya Rahane and coached by Abhishek Nayar.
Kolkata Knight Riders were one of the last teams to be eliminated from the 2026 IPL and finished the season in seventh place with six wins from 14 matches. Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored the most runs (422) while Kartik Tyagi took the most wickets (18) for Kolkata in the 2026 season.
Pre-season
The 2026 Indian Premier League was the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Kolkata Knight Riders had won the IPL title three times. The team finished in eighth place in the previous season. The tournament featured ten teams competing in 74 matches from 28 March to 31 May 2026. Kolkata played all their home matches at Eden Gardens.
Player retention Franchises were allowed to retain any number of players from their squad, including traded players while excluding players signed as temporary replacements. Franchises were required to submit their retention lists before 15 November 2025. Kolkata retained twelve players, including captain Ajinkya Rahane. Kolkata also traded Mayank Markande to Mumbai Indians.
+ Retained players Domestic Overseas Vaibhav Arora Varun Chakravarthy Umran Malik Manish Pandey Angkrish Raghuvanshi Ajinkya Rahane Harshit Rana Anukul Roy Ramandeep Singh Rinku Singh Sunil Narine Rovman Powell + Released players Batters Wicket-keepers All-rounders Bowlers Venkatesh Iyer Shivam Shukla Rahmanullah Gurbaz Quinton de Kock Moeen Ali Andre Russell Luvnith Sisodia Spencer Johnson Mayank Markande Anrich Nortje Chetan Sakariya
Auction The season's auction took place on 16 December 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The auction purse for each franchise was set at , with franchises being deducted an amount from the purse for every retained player. Kolkata had a purse remaining of . Kolkata bought thirteen players in the auction, including eight capped players and six overseas players.
+ Auctioned players Domestic Overseas Capped Uncapped Capped Uncapped Akash Deep Rahul Tripathi Tejasvi Singh Kartik Tyagi Prashant Solanki Sarthak Ranjan Daksh Kamra Cameron Green Rachin Ravindra Finn Allen Matheesha Pathirana Tim Seifert Mustafizur Rahman
Squad Players with international caps as of start of 2026 IPL are listed in bold. Ages are as of . Withdrawn players are indicated by a dagger symbol () and placed at the bottom of the table.
+ Kolkata Knight Riders squad for the 2026 Indian Premier League Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Salary Notes 3 Ajinkya Rahane Right-handed Right-arm medium Captain 4 Sarthak Ranjan Right-handed Right-arm leg-break 8 Rachin Ravindra Left-handed Left-arm orthodox Overseas 9 Manish Pandey Right-handed Right-arm medium 14 Vaibhav Arora Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 16 Finn Allen Right-handed Right-arm off-break Overseas 18 Angkrish Raghuvanshi Right-handed Right-arm off-break 19 Ramandeep Singh Right-handed Right-arm medium 21 Tejasvi Singh Right-handed 23 Navdeep Saini Right-handed Right-arm fast Replacement 24 Umran Malik Right-handed Right-arm fast 26 Kartik Tyagi Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 28 Rahul Tripathi Right-handed Right-arm medium 29 Varun Chakravarthy Right-handed Right-arm leg-break 33 Saurabh Dubey Right-handed Left-arm fast-medium Replacement 35 Rinku Singh Left-handed Right-arm off-break 40 Blessing Muzarabani Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas; replacement 42 Cameron Green Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas 43 Tim Seifert Right-handed Overseas 45 Anukul Roy Left-handed Left-arm orthodox 52 Rovman Powell Right-handed Right-arm medium Overseas 63 Daksh Kamra Right-handed Right-arm leg-break 74 Sunil Narine Left-handed Right-arm off-break Overseas Luvnith Sisodia Left-handed Left-arm medium Replacement Prashant Solanki Right-handed Right-arm leg-break 22 Harshit Rana Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Withdrawn 81 Matheesha Pathirana Right-handed Right-arm fast Overseas; withdrawn Akash Deep Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Withdrawn Mustafizur Rahman Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Overseas; withdrawn
Support staff Abhishek Nayar replaced Chandrakant Pandit as the head coach while Shane Watson replaced Ottis Gibson as an assistant coach and Tim Southee replaced Bharat Arun and Carl Crowe as bowling coach. Dishant Yagnik also joined the squad as a fielding coach.
Position Name Head coach Abhishek Nayar Assistant coach Shane Watson Bowling coach Tim Southee Fielding coach Dishant Yagnik Mentor Dwayne Bravo Source: News18
League stage Kolkata Knight Riders began their season with two losses to Mumbai and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Their third match against Punjab Kings was abandoned due to rain. They lost their next three matches to Lucknow Super Giants, Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. This was the first time Kolkata did not win any of their opening matches in a season. The won their next four matches against Rajasthan Royals, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals; lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru and won against Gujarat and Mumbai. They lost their last game of the season to Delhi to finish the league stage at the seventh place with thirteen points and were eliminated.
Points table
League progression
Fixtures
Statistics + Most runs Runs Player 422 Angkrish Raghuvanshi 349 Finn Allen 335 Ajinkya Rahane 322 Cameron Green 295 Rinku Singh + Most wickets Wickets Player 18 Kartik Tyagi 15 Sunil Narine 11 Varun Chakravarthy Vaibhav Arora 9 Anukul Roy
References
External links
Kolkata Knight Riders at IPLT20.com