As the much-anticipated Indian Premier League (IPL) gears up to kick off on March 28, only the first 20 matches have been scheduled so far due to ongoing state elections. With the tournament approaching, Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) fast bowler Vaibhav Arora shared insights on his team’s preparations. “Our preparation is on point. We’re engaged in practice matches and working on our variations in the nets. As a fast bowler, it’s crucial to fine-tune your skills to perform effectively during matches,” he commented.
Joining KKR as the bowling coach is the legendary former New Zealand captain Tim Southee, and Arora expressed his enthusiasm for learning from the 37-year-old. “Tim Southee is a cricketing icon with a wealth of experience. We were teammates at KKR last season, and I gained a lot from that time. Now that he’s our bowling coach, I’m excited to have more opportunities to learn from him and enhance my skills. I believe there’s so much I can absorb from him, and I’m looking forward to our collaboration,” Arora added.
The opening match of this IPL season will see the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), face off against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. KKR will begin their campaign with a match against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians: Full Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert (WK), Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sarthak Ranjan, Finn Allen (WK), Rachin Ravindra, Cameron Green, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Akash Deep, Prashant Solanki, Matheesha Pathirana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, Tejasvi Singh (WK), Daksh Kamra.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, Suryakumar Yadav, Quinton de Kock (WK), Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Corbin Bosch, Hardik Pandya (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Will Jacks, Mayank Rawat, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, Raghu Sharma, Atharva Ankolekar, Tilak Varma, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Danish Malewar, Robin Minz (WK), Allah Ghazanfar, Naman Dhir, Mohammed Salahuddin Izhar.