Three players whose IPL careers dwindled after leaving KKR

Kolkata Knight Riders are one of the most successful teams in the history of IPL. The team has a huge fan following across the country and always enter the tournament as underdogs but surprise everyone with their strong performances.

Gautam Gambhir led the team to their two IPL trophies after making it to the playoffs six times. A lot of legends have played for this prestigious franchise and a lot of youngsters as well, who went on to earn fame and money.

There were some players who enjoyed their best IPL days with the franchise and once they left the franchise, they could not repeat the same success. In this article, let us take a look at three such players whose IPL career dwindled after leaving KKR.

---

#3 Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey had a great time with the Kolkata Knight Riders

Manish Pandey was part of several IPL franchises before he came to KKR and it is SRK's franchise that lifted his career. In the 4 seasons with the franchise, he scored 1270 runs in 55 matches, accompanied by 6 half-centuries.

He will be remembered for his 94 off 50 balls in the finals against KXIP that brought home the second title for KKR. This was the then highest run chase in any T20 final and Pandey was awarded the Man of the Match.

However, he was not retained by KKR after the 2017 season and was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2018 IPL auction for a whopping INR 11 crores. This raised few eyebrows because even though Pandey has a lot of potential, he has always been inconsistent.

In the 2018 season, Pandey scored only 284 runs in 15 matches with a not-so-great strike-rate of 115.44. These are not the stats you would expect from such an expensive player and he was criticized by the fans and analysts.

#2 Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly was in the league for just five seasons

Even though Sourav Ganguly played in the IPL for just five seasons, he had an impact on the game during his first three years when he was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders. In the three seasons for KKR, he scored 1031 runs in 40 matches, with 7 half-centuries and high-score of 91 against Deccan Chargers.

Coming into the 2011 auction after a brilliant season with KKR, where he scored 493 runs in 14 matches at a breath-taking average of 37.92, everyone expected the franchises to engage in a tug of war for Ganguly but that was not the case. No franchise showed interest, including KKR, a team that had 'Dada' as the face. He was later selected by Pune Warriors and featured in two seasons before calling it quits.

However, Ganguly did not have a great time with Pune and he scored just 318 runs in 19 matches in the two years combined and did not manage to score a single half-century. His highest score with Pune Warriors was 45.

#1 Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir failed to perform with the Delhi Daredevils last season

Without a shadow of doubt, Gautam Gambhir is one of the most successful captains in the history of IPL. With his fearless approach, he led the KKR to two IPL trophies (2012 and 2014). He is also the leading run-scorer for the franchise.

He has spent seven years with the franchise and scored 3035 runs in 108 matches. This includes 27 half-centuries, with a high score of 90*. After a storied career with the franchise, Gambhir was not retained for the IPL 2018 and he was subsequently picked to play, by the Delhi Daredevils.

Howbeit, he only scored 85 runs in 6 matches before he decided to step down from captaincy. The Delhi Daredevils only managed to register one win in those six matches and he did not feature in a single game after he resigned as the skipper