Kolkata Knight Riders were bottom-half material only a fortnight ago. One victory, five defeats and a wash-out after six matches had the 2026 campaign heading for the bin. Seven fixtures later the conversation is very different: six wins, four in a row, and a genuine chance of squeezing into the last four if they defeat Delhi Capitals at Eden Gardens on Sunday and a couple of other results oblige.
“It’s a great story,” said Abhinav Mukund, speaking on the TimeOut show moments after Wednesday’s four-wicket success over Mumbai Indians. He was still trying to work out how a side that looked flat in April suddenly feels purpose-built for mid-May.
Key facts first
• Current record: 7 wins, 5 losses, 1 no-result.
• Required: beat Delhi, hope other contenders trip.
• Bowling turnaround: Sunil Narine economy 6.40, 14 wickets; Varun Chakravarthy 10 wickets, economy 8.78; Kartik Tyagi fifth on the Purple Cap list.
Spin at the centre
“I think they’ve got their tactics right,” Abhinav said. “They have got their combinations right. They have played to their strengths. The [batting] still may not be firing on all cylinders, but they have basically been very good in the aspects that we thought that KKR would be good in, which is spin.”
Both Narine and Chakravarthy were scratchy early on. As the tournament pitches tired and ball held in the surface, their value has risen sharply. Left-arm spinner Anukul Roy, quietly effective in two matches, offers a third slow option, giving Shreyas Iyer the freedom to control the middle overs.
“There’s pace help as well,” Abhinav added. “Their pace bowlers have come together a little bit. They’ve got Cam Green bowling and picking up wickets. So a lot of good things going for Kolkata Knight Riders and a form team is always dangerous. And teams will be thinking they would rather face Punjab Kings [PBKS] now than KKR. And that’s something we wouldn’t have said at the start of the IPL.”
Finding the right blend
Wasim Jaffer, sitting alongside Mukund, pointed to early-season chopping and changing.
“Whenever they had good seasons [recently], Varun and Narine have done well. And now they’ve got Anukul as well, even though he didn’t bowl much today,” Wasim Jaffer said. “But that’s been the story. Coming into the tournament, Varun wasn’t in the best of form. Even Narine wasn’t at his best, like how he’s performing now.
“That has been their strength. But finding that right combination probably hurt them in the initial games: finding who will open, who will play where, where Cam Green fits, their bowling struggles. Lot of players missed out [Mustafizur Rahman and Harshit Rana], players didn’t come in time [Matheesha Pathirana]. But I think they just found the right combination in the nick of time.”
Batting still patchy
KKR’s top order remains unreliable. Phil Salt has two fifties but also four single-figure scores. Venkatesh Iyer has threatened rather than dominated. Rinku Singh’s finishing power rescued the chase against Mumbai yet again, but Shreyas Iyer concedes they need “ten to fifteen more runs up front” to feel comfortable when defending.
Why the optimism still matters
Form, in Twenty20 cricket, often trumps table position. A side hitting the right notes late can unsettle higher-ranked opponents who peaked too soon. KKR, champions three times before, know knockout pressure. Narine remains a relentless match-up nightmare, Green offers hard lengths at the death, and Rinku needs no invitation in a chase.
Sunday afternoon will reveal whether the revival carries them beyond the league stage. Whatever happens, the last three weeks have reminded the competition that written-off teams can rebound quickly when selection, conditions and confidence finally line up.
