Ajinkya Rahane joins KKR in worshipping stumps, Eden Gardens pitch curator seeks blessings

Indian Premier League title holders Kolkata Knight Riders began their pre-tournament camp in Kolkata with the puja of Eden Gardens pitch. The staff and players, led by head coach Chandrakant Pandit, participated in the puja before the commencement of the cricketing activity at this famous cricket ground. Captain Ajinkya Rahane and Eden Gardens pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee made offerings to cricket and sought blessings for another successful IPL journey.

Ahead of the start of the camp, head coach Mr. Chandrakant Pandit said, “We have already planned our training sessions. Some international players are unavailable due to the Champions Trophy, but most of our key players are here. It is a great feeling as we are returning to our home ground, especially after the last season, and we would like to keep that momentum going. There is a different motivation in the team. Eden Gardens, with a capacity of over 68,000 spectators, is one of the most famous venues in cricket and will once again host all of KKR's home matches in the upcoming season.

The defending champions will begin their Tata IPL 2025 campaign on March 22 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at their home ground. This will also be the first match of the Indian Premier League this season. Mentor Gautam Gambhir, who played an important role in making Kolkata the champion last season, will not be with the team this season. He is the head coach of the Indian cricket team. In such a situation, he is ready to maintain the old momentum without his old staff.

KKR for IPL 2025: Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anrique Norkia, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Lavneet Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali and Umran Malik.