Although their current form may not be great, Kolkata Knight Riders is still a successful franchise in the competition, having won two IPL trophies. Over the years, KKR has been known to have a few T20 specialists on its roster. Also, the franchise has been home to some legends in the past. In this article, we take a look at the all-time strongest possible KKR XI if they played Test cricket.
Openers: Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill
The highest run-getter for KKR so far and the captain to have won two trophies for the franchise, Gautam Gambhir will open the batting for the all-time KKR XI if they played Test cricket. The southpaw had a fairly short Test career of 58 games, but he did have a few memorable outings, especially when playing at home.
Shubman Gill will partner with Gambhir at the top of the order. The Punjab cricketer is new to the game but has shown promise to excel at the highest level. His knock at the Gabba, where India pulled of a famous win, was an exhibition of the player’s talent. In T20 cricket, though, Gill needs to do more work, but he can do well in this format, as well.
Middle-Order: Cheteshwar Pujara, Sourav Ganguly (C), Brendon McCullum and Wriddhiman Saha (WK)
It was actually KKR where Cheteshwar Pujara started his IPL career. However, a few years later, Pujara’s focus shifted to the five-day format. Although Ricky Ponting also played for the franchise, to maintain the four-foreigner rule, we have left him out.
The chunk of the middle-order responsibilities will lie with Sourav Ganguly and Brendon McCullum. While both the players have captained KKR, Bazz is currently the Head Coach of the franchise. Ganguly had an important role to play in the golden era of Indian batting while Bazz made the format entertaining with his attacking display.
Wriddhiman Saha has played for KKR in the past. Though he did not enjoy much success in the franchise, Saha later delivered for Punjab in 2014. In Test cricket, though, he has been one of the best keepers in the country in recent years. However, his position has been completely occupied by Rishabh Pant at the moment.
All-Rounders: Jacques Kallis
Having scored 13289 runs alongside 292 wickets in Tests, Jacques Kallis is arguably the best all-rounder to have played the game. He also scored 1603 runs and picked up 48 wickets between 2011 and 2014 for KKR. Although he would surely bat higher up, we have Kallis as the sole all-rounder in this all-time KKR XI if they played Test cricket.
Bowlers: Harbhajan Singh, Pat Cummins, Brett Lee and Ishant Sharma
Harbhajan Singh has only recently started his KKR career, but he is undroppable when it came to Test cricket. One of the most successful spinners in the game, Bhajji collected 417 wickets for India. He also has two centuries to his name in the longer format of the game.
Ishant Sharma, Brett Lee and Pat Cummins will form the core of the bowling attack for this XI. While Ishant played for KKR in the first three seasons, Lee was there in the franchise between 2011 and 2013. Cummins is currently part of the unit. With this trio, KKR gets a bowling unit that can pick wickets at the start while also having the ability to trouble the opposition with the old ball.
