With explosive batter Rahul Tripathi set for his second stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the franchise uploaded a video of his entry to the camp by recreating the famous scene of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham. Tripathi joined the camp on March 18, Wednesday as the right-handed batter will look to make the most of the opportunity given by the Knight Riders, who shelled out ₹75 lakh.
Rahul Tripathi was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2020 and 2021
The 35-year-old was part of the three-time champions’ camp in 2020 and 2021 but delivered middling returns in both. Tripathi mustered 230 runs in 2020 and aggregated 397 in 2021, the edition that saw the Knight Riders reach the tournament final. Tripathi, who has also played five T20Is for India, spent three seasons with the SunRisers Hyderabad and one with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The veteran cricketer’s best IPL season came for the SunRisers in 2022 when he mustered 413 runs in 14 games at 37.55 alongside a healthy strike rate of 158.24. He played in 13 games the following season but opportunities sharply declined in 2024 and 2025.
Meanwhile, here’s the video shared by the Knight Riders and captioned:
“Rahul ghar laut aaya”
Rahul ghar laut aaya 🥹💜 pic.twitter.com/XGkJZpXrMu
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 18, 2026
Kolkata Knight Riders confirm Ajinkya Rahane as captain for IPL 2026
Meanwhile, the Knight Riders have confirmed Ajinkya Rahane as captain despite the three-time champions’ struggles in the previous edition. Having started the season as the defending champions, Kolkata looked shaky all season and eventually finished at the 8th spot with five wins and seven defeats. Their highlight of the auction was purchasing Cameron Green for a jaw-dropping ₹25.20 crore, seemingly to replace Andre Russell, while also shelling out ₹18 crore on Matheesha Pathirana. With openers Finn Allen and Tim Seifert also in outstanding form, the Knight Riders will hope more from them.
Kolkata’s campaign begins on March 29 against the Mumbai Indians in an away game.
KKR squad: Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Blessing Muzarabani, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep. Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik.
