Top 5 Indian Premier League Teams before the auctions

#1 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

KKR winning the 2012 edition of the tournament

Can you be too far away from success when you have a co-owner like Shahrukh Khan? The Badshah of Bollywood. Very unlikely.

The first three season were, however, very tough for the Kolkata-based outfit. With Sourav Ganguly one of India’s finest ever captains at the helm the team astonishingly failed to make it to the playoffs.

But then in 2011, KKR drastically revamped their squad. They bought left-hander Gautam Gambhir with a hefty amount of 1.5 million dollars and appointed him captain. That very season the Knights in purple made it to the last four.

In the next edition, KKR surprised critics and fans alike to go on and win the trophy for the first time. In a thrilling final, Gambhir’s men beat the then defending champions Chennai Super Kings to lay their hands on the glittering piece of silverware.

They got knocked out of the league stage next year but came back to win the trophy again in 2014 wherein the finals they went past Kings XI Punjab. Last year they made it to the playoffs but then lost to eventual champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.

For the 10^th edition of the tourney, KKR have retained most of their players who helped them achieve success in the last few years. This year too Gambhir will lead the outfit and will have alongside him the likes of Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan and West Indies mystery spinner Sunil Narine.