Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the three-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions, had a season to forget in the 2025 edition of the league, finishing eighth in the points table. In the 14 matches of the IPL season, KKR could only secure five wins, and while their two matches were washed out, losing seven matches in a single campaign isn’t quite enough these days to make the playoffs
The biggest problem for KKR was how they were unable to get their playing combination right despite having an array of all-rounders at their disposal in the IPL 2025. The batting lineup wasn’t sorted out all season, while the bowlers let them down in crunch situations more often than not despite Ajinkya Rahane captaining the side with a proven track record in the tournament.
In this article, SportsTiger looks at three players KKR might release ahead of the IPL 2026 season.
3 players KKR might release ahead of IPL 2026
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Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock, the former South African cricketer, opened the batting for KKR in the IPL 2025, but consistency was gravely missing in his play all season, scoring just 152 runs in eight matches at an average of 21.7 and a strike-rate of 129.9. Apart from a match-winning 97* earlier in the season against Rajasthan Royals (RR), the 32-year-old looked all at sea with the bat before getting dropped from the playing XI of KKR, while his wicketkeeping skills weren’t quite at their best either.
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Manish Pandey
Manish Pandey, who has won the IPL with KKR on multiple occasions, was an afterthought for the majority of the 2025 season before getting the chance in the playing XI due to lack of performances of his teammates. In the three matches he played for KKR in the IPL 2025, the right-handed batter did score 92 runs at an average of 46 and a strike-rate of 141.53, but it is highly likely that the team management ends up releasing him in favour of younger talent in their coming seasons.
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Moeen Ali
Moeen Ali had a tough IPL 2025 season with KKR, not only with the bat and ball, but in the field as well, which meant that he wasn’t a regular fixture of the team. In his six appearances in the tournament, he batted twice for KKR, scoring just five runs, while his bowling stats weren’t much better either, taking six wickets in six appearances at an economy of 8.50, while the five sixes in five balls from Riyan Parag ended his league campaign on a sour note.
