IPL 8, Know Your Team: Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders

Present Squad:

Gautam Gambhir, Azhar Mahmood, Johan Botha, KC Cariappa, Piyush Chawla, Pat Cummins, Aditya Garhwal, Brad Hogg, Sheldon Jackson, Kuldeep Yadav, Morne Morkel, Sunil Narine, Sumit Narwal, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Veer Pratap Singh, Vaibhav Rawal, Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Robin Uthappa, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav(IPL 2015: Full Coverage)

Last Year's Squad

Gautam Gambhir, Manvinder Bisla, Piyush Chawla, Pat Cummins, Debabrata Das, Jacques Kallis, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Sayan Mondal, Morne Morkel, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Veer Pratap Singh, Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Robin Uthappa, Vinay Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav

Looking back: IPL-7 Results

Kolkata Knight Riders were crowned champions for the second time last season after beating table-toppers Kings XI Punjab in the final in Bangalore. In the points table, KKR finished second - pipping CSK on net run-rate. KKR and KXIP met four times last year in the IPL with Gautam Gambhir-led side emerging victors on three occasions, including qualifier 1 and final.

Looking forward: IPL-8

Kolkata Knight Riders lack big names in the team but their domestic and lesser known players have been key to their recent success. This time too, the bulk of the IPL load will be on Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan Robin Uthappa, Morne Morkel and Shakib Al Hasan. They will miss the services of Jacques Kallis, but the presence of all-rounder Azhar Mahmood, who is tailor-made for Twenty20s, will boost the side's title defence.

Prediction:

After winning two IPL championships in three years, KKR will once again be favourites to go the distance.