Team India's Champions Trophy hero joins KKR camp ahead of IPL 2025

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy has joined the camp ahead of the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was a part of the Indian cricket team that recently won the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Chakravarthy was one of the six players KKR retained for this season. He has been one of their consistent performers in recent times and also played a key role in their title-winning campaign in IPL 2024. The Tamil Nadu-born cricketer picked up 21 wickets in 14 innings, including a best figure of 3/16.

With the tournament opener only a few days away, the Knight Riders welcomed Chakravarthy to the team on Monday, March 17. They shared a few photographs of the cricketer, where he was seen entering the team hotel. The 33-year-old also posed with the IPL trophies that Kolkata won in 2012, 2014, and 2024.

"Our 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒏 lands in Kolkata 🪄 💜 Varun Chakaravarthy | #AmiKKR | #TATAIPL2025 | #KnightLanding," KKR captioned the Instagram post.

Varun Chakravarthy has been in fine form with the ball and played a key role in India lifting the Champions Trophy. He finished with nine wickets in three matches, including a five-wicket haul in the Group A fixture against New Zealand. Chakravarthy also picked up two wickets in the all-important final against the Blackcaps.

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Aakash Chopra picks KKR's probable playing XI for IPL 2025

Cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra recently picked Kolkata's strongest playing XI for the upcoming season of the cash-rich league.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra,' Chopra reckoned that the defending champions can either open with Ajinkya Rahane and Quinton de Kock or send Sunil Narine alongside the Proteas wicketkeeper-batter.

"They will have two options. One will be to open with Ajju, with Quinton de Kock alongside him, which means you don't get Narine to open. You could play either Angkrish Raghuvanshi or Manish Pandey at No. 3, and then Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy and Spencer Johnson," Chopra said.

The Kolkata Knight Riders will begin their IPL 2025 campaign when they lock horns with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on the opening night (March 22) at Eden Gardens.