Follow UsKolkata Knight Riders (KKR) faltered under pressure against Sunrisers Hyderabad, on May 25 (Sunday), to finish IPL 2025 in eighth place with just 12 points. Familiar batting woes sprang up again for the defending champions, as they failed to come close to SRH’s 278, falling short by 110 runs.
Despite bowlers conceding 278 runs, KKR's ski pper Ajinkya Rahane reckoned that KKR’s biggest worry this season has been their batting, which even failed to chase down 112 earlier in the season.
"Where we faltered slightly was at the batting end. As a batting unit, collectively, we couldn't do well. I thought bowlers did well throughout the season,” Rahane revealed in the post-match press conference.
"See, sometimes what happens is, you know, when you have a couple of good seasons, as an individual, you put a lot of expectation on yourself. You put pressure on yourself. And I feel that was the case for most of the batters to prove, you know, that how good I am. And it is completely natural.
That was the case for Rahane’s KKR, where the trio of Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh completely flunked in the season.
"Unfortunately, two-three players were going through that phase for us. And that was the reason we couldn't do well in our batting unit. But again, they are pretty much experienced enough to handle this situation. And I'm sure they will come back stronger next year. That's why I said, you know, when you have those expectations on yourself, you unknowingly put pressure. Whenever you go on to bat or when you are bowling.
In particular, it was a disastrous outing for Iyer, who endured his worst IPL season, with just 142 runs across 11 games, averaging 20.28. But Rahane backed Iyer, stating that there is usually more limelight and criticism on players who are going for big money.
"What I can say is, you know, if a player gets 20 plus crore or if a player gets 1 or 2 crore or 3 or 4 crore, your attitude doesn't change on the field. That's what matters. As a player, you only focus on the controllable things. And I felt Venkatesh Iyer was actually focusing on the controllable things.
"He was practising hard, you know, doing, trying his best, even during the games, whichever matches he played before getting injured. I thought he did really well. It's just that for us as a team, 3-4 guys was out of form. That was the only reason I thought we struggled this year. But your attitude doesn't change. You know, someone's not going to work doubly harder if he's getting 20 plus crore or someone's not going to work less harder when he's getting 1, 2, 3 crore, whatever it is.”