"They might be the best in the tournament at those numbers" - Aakash Chopra on KKR's strengths ahead of IPL 2025

Former India player Aakash Chopra has picked the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) destructive middle order as one of their strengths heading into IPL 2025. He opined that Rinku Singh, Andre Russell and Ramandeep Singh might be the best Nos. 5 to 7 in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.

Rinku (₹13 crore), Russell (₹12 crore) and Ramandeep (₹4 crore) were among the six players retained by KKR ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. Sunil Narine (₹12 crore), Varun Chakaravarthy (₹12 crore) and Harshit Rana (₹4 crore) were their other three retentions.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra', the former India opener chose KKR's successful retention of most of their core and formidable middle order as two of their positives ahead of IPL 2025.

"They were trying a lot to retain their core, and I think they have been fairly successful in retaining that core. They would have been unhappy that Shreyas Iyer and Mitchell Starc left, but they have kept most of the others. They did the retentions very well and spent a lot of money to bring Venkatesh Iyer," he said (4:45).

"They have an explosive middle order. Rinku, Ramandeep and Russell have an incredible power of finishing matches. Ramandeep's recent form has also been very good, and Rinku Singh will be very determined to do well as he hasn't been getting too many opportunities, and Russell always does well. They might be the best in the tournament at those numbers - five, six and seven," Chopra added.

Andre Russell smashed 222 runs at a strike rate of 185.00 in nine innings in KKR's title-winning run in IPL 2024. While Rinku Singh scored 168 runs at a strike rate of 148.67 in 11 innings last season, Ramandeep Singh smoked 125 runs at a strike rate of 201.61 in nine hits.

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"No one in the world is able to play Varun Chakaravarthy" - Aakash Chopra on KKR's other strengths heading into IPL 2025

Varun Chakaravarthy (21) was KKR's highest wicket-taker in IPL 2024. [P/C: iplt20.com]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra noted that the Kolkata Knight Riders possess a potent spin-bowling duo in Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine.

"Their spin twin is one of the best in the tournament. You might consider Axar-Kuldeep and Ashwin-Jadeja for the best, but these guys are not too far behind. No one in the world is able to play Varun Chakaravarthy. Sunil Narine is not getting old at all and is not going out of form either," he said (6:20).

The former KKR player added that the defending champions have quite a few all-rounders and a decent top order.

"This team has all-rounders, which they always have, and their top-order batting is looking solid. It's not that there is a problem there because they have Quinton de Kock, Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer and Angkrish Raghuvanshi/Manish Pandey, whoever they want to play. It's actually a very, very decent batting order," Chopra observed.

KKR have two of the best T20 all-rounders in Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, with Rovman Powell and Moeen Ali as decent backups. Apart from Narine as a potential opener, the three-time champions have enticing top-order batting options in Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Manish Pandey.