With 18 names in contention, explore the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) the best retained squad and released players list for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027.
From 2024 to 2026, it has been two unforgettable years for the Kolkata Knight Riders, who finished the 2025 season in the bottom half, and are almost finishing in the same position for the year 2026 as well. It has been a complete change in strategy for KKR, as they went from Captain Shreyas Iyer to Captain Ajinkya Rahane, after failing to retain Shreyas Iyer in the IPL 2025 Mega Auction.
So, what went wrong for KKR in the last two years? Well, Captaincy is definitely one of the key areas where KKR looked feeble as Ajinkya Rahane’s outdated ideas didn’t augur well with the modern T20 thinking. But aside from Captaincy, KKR failed to retain most of the core, and the new players just couldn’t match the quality of the old players. For example, Phil Sat, Shreyas Iyer, Mitchell Starc, and Andre Russell quartet feels far superior to Gurbaz/ QDK / Allen, Rahane, Pathirana, Green, etc.
With KKR’s campaign almost done and dusted, as they are realistically out of competition, but mathematically in, they must already be thinking about the 2027 edition, and how they would like to shape their team for the coming year. So, in this article, we analyse the existing squad of the Kolkata Knight Riders team, and look at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027 Best Retained and Released players list for the KKR team.
KKR Retained Plan for IPL 2027 Explained
Let’s start with the most important question for KKR. Will Ajinkya Rahane be retained? Well, in all honesty, Ajinkya Rahane won’t and shouldn’t be retained by KKR. Rahane got two seasons to play at the flag-end of his career, and has not done anything extraordinary in the batting or Captaincy department. With KKR being a top-heavy team, KKR need to spend more on buying middle-order and finishers. So, KKR need to move on from Ajinkya Rahane, and look at better Captaincy and middle-order focus candidates.
With no Rahane, KKR also need to focus on removing outdated players, where hope is the only paramount. So, the likes of Manish Pandey, Rahul Tripathi, etc., will need to be shown the doors, and instead, fresh talents should be given more opportunities. In addition, injury-prone Pathirana is no good for the Team. Spending 18 Cr for someone who doesn’t add anything significant to the team is a big no-no. So, expect KKR to also release Rachin Ravinda, Blessing Muzarabani, and Prashant Solanki.
IPL 2027 KKR Released Players Best List
- Ajinkya Rahane
- Manish Pandey
- Rahul Tripathi
- Rachin Ravindra (OS)
- Matheesha Pathirana (OS)
- Blessing Muzarabani (OS)
- Prashant Solanki
Now, overall, KKR should roughly retain around 18 players, which will give them a purse of around 33 Cr for the upcoming Mini Auction. Among star batters, KKR shall retain finisher Rinku Singh – a potential Captaincy candidate. Another finisher, Rovman Powell, openers Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, a solid top-order batter, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, and one more finisher, Ramandeep Singh. So, from batters and WK perspective, KKR have solid 7 options to look at, and those are really good names.
Coming to All-rounders, KKR has a mix of experienced and young ARs in the side, and they should ideally retain 5 of them. While Cameron Green is the most experienced All-rounder, the team also has Anukul Roy and Sunil Narine, among other established names. In terms of emerging all-rounders, KKR have Sarthank Ranjan and Daksh Kamra, and they should ideally retain both of them. Overall, KKR may not need to fill this space in the Auction.
Now, bowling is the area where KKR is purely Indian-players centric. They did hire Matheesha Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman. But Fizz may not play in the IPL again, and Pathirana is injury-prone. So, KKR may need solid options in the pace department from the overseas players’ POV. In terms of Indian bowlers, KKR should retain 6 names, and those are Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Deep, Saurabh Dubey, and Varun Chakravarthy.
IPL 2027 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Best Retained Squad Players List
Batters
- Rinku Singh
- Ramandeep Singh
- Rovman Powell (OS)
Wicket-keepers
- Angkrish Raghuvanshi
- Finn Allen (OS)
- Tejasvi Singh
- Tim Seifert (OS)
All-rounders
- Anukul Roy
- Cameron Green (OS)
- Daksh Kamra
- Sarthak Ranjan
- Sunil Narine (OS)
Bowlers
- Akash Deep
- Saurabh Dubey
- Kartik Tyagi
- Umran Malik
- Vaibhav Arora
- Varun Chakravarthy
So, that’s about the best retained and released players list for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for IPL 2027. Overall, 18 players is already a solid core, if retained. All KKR will have to focus on for next year is a potential Captaincy candidate, and a couple of quality Overseas pacers. Aside from this, the batting core looks strong, but bowling is an area where they need improvement.
Thanks for reading! Looking at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027 retained players list for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), which ones should they release? Please email your thoughts to business@cricalytics.com.