Kolkata Knight Riders: Two-time champion team, which have not reached the playoffs for the last two times

The 14th season of the Indian Premier League is going to start on 9 April. Two-time champion team Kolkata Knight Riders will start their campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 11 from Chennai. Last season played in the UAE saw KKR battling from the opening pair to the middle order and finishers. The captain was also changed in the middle of the tournament, but that did not make any difference. Now the team will be committed to starting from the new Siye, taking lessons from previous weaknesses.

Caribbean players not playing

KKR will need a good start from Shubman Gill. Gill wasted a lot of balls in the beginning, putting pressure on the middle order. The Morgan-led team will have to create a good combination in the beginning, as it was the last time the team failed to do so. KKR failed to make it to the playoffs for the second time in a row after Gambhir's era due to the failure of two West Indies star players Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.

Morgan will be captain for the entire tournament for the first time

The England World Cup-winning captain took over the middle of the tournament last year. Dinesh Karthik had decided to leave the captaincy to focus on his game and would like to make up for 2020 by 2021. Left-handed batsman Morgan himself did well and scored 418 runs in 14 innings. He also demonstrated his skill of playing long shots in the death overs and had hit the maximum 24 sixes.

Buy good players at auction

KKR retained 17 of their players in the team despite disappointing results, but this time some good players have also been added to the team. The arrival of Bangladesh star all-rounders Shakib-Al-Hasan and Ben Cutting has given them good backups of Naren and Russell. KKR has a good young fast bowler in the form of the famous Krishna, but once again the eyes will be on Australian superstar Pat Cummins, with Lockie Ferguson in the team to support him.

KKR's weakness is its spin department

Kuldeep Yadav, a left-arm wrist-spinner, managed to get just one wicket in five matches last year. Naren, who was the hero of his 2012 and 2014 title wins under Gambhir, is also unable to walk. Last year, Sunil received a warning for suspicious action, which prevented him from playing four matches. Another mysterious spinner Varun Chakraborty took 17 wickets in the absence of Naren, but his fitness remains a concern. Shakib and veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh would also like to take full advantage of the opportunities on the slow wickets of Delhi and Chennai.

KKR's team is as follows

Eoin Morgan (captain), Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Naren, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagerkoti, Sandeep Warrier, Famous Krishna, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakraborty, Shakib-Al-Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan Negi.