Watch: KKR's new video provides hint about new opening pair ahead of IPL 2026!

IPL 2025 was a disappointing season for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). There was the defending champion, who could not even qualify for the playoffs. The end of the season came off with an alarming situation for the franchise. Ahead of a new season, which is IPL 2026, KKR officials made their intentions clear: they are going to shake up their setup massively.

On paper, the franchise retained most of their key players, but strategically, some major changes are expected. On Sunday, KKR, from their official social media account 'X,' shared a video that is considered a hint about their new opening pair. Last season, the team had tried multiple opening pairs with very little effect for them.

After the departures of Quinton de Kock and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, it was clear that KKR can create a new opening pair. According to the latest video, Ajinkya Rahane and Finn Allen can tie a knot for the opening combination in the IPL 2026 season. Finn Allen is known for his swashbuckling batting style, while Rahane is known for his classic batting style. The possible combination of Allen and Rahane can bring some much-needed balance on top of KKR's batting lineup. 

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KKR Full Squad for IPL 2026:

Retained Players

Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakravarthy, Ramandeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik.

New Players

Cameron Green (25.20 cr), Matheesha Pathirana (18 cr), Mustafizur Rahman (9.20 cr), Tejasvi Singh (3 cr), Finn Allen (2 cr), Tim Seifert (1.50 cr), Rahul Tripathi (75 L), Kartik Tyagi (30 L), Daksh Kamra (30 L), Sarthak Ranjan (30 L), Prashant Solanki (30 L), Akashdeep (1 cr), Rachin Ravindra (2 cr).