Abhishek Nayar Backs Rahul Tripathi in IPL Auction 2026

Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter Rahul Tripathi is back in the KKR squad after the three-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions bought him for INR 75 lakh at the IPL 2026 auction. KKR would be Rahul Tripathi New IPL Team for the upcoming season. No other franchise apart from KKR showed interest in Tripathi, as he was sold at his base price. KKR already has a great batting lineup, so it would be interesting to see where Tripathi will fit in the playing XI.

Rahul Tripathi IPL auction 2026

Rahul Tripathi KKR relationship is old. He has played for the franchise in the years 2020 and 2021. However, the player was later released and played for Sunrisers Hyderabad while playing the last season for CSK. It can also be said that Tripathi has been backed up by KKR's head coach Abhishek Nayar, who has been associated with KKR since 2018 and has worked with Tripathi earlier as well. Having Tripathi in the squad at his base price of INR 75 lakh is one of the greatest steal deals of this season's auction.

KKR Strengthen Their Bowling Department

Kolkata Knight Riders focused on strengthening their bowling department during the auction, particularly in the fast-bowling department. They secured the services of star Sri Lanka bowler Matheesha Pathirana at INR 18 crore and experienced Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman at INR 9.20 crore. Apart from them, KKR also bought Akash Deep for INR 1 crore and Kartik Tyagi for INR 20 lakh.

With more pacers like Harshit Rana, Umran Malik, and Vaibhav Arora, and their star spin bowling department, which features Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine, it's safe to say that KKR has the most lethal-looking bowling lineup for the upcoming IPL season, with some of the best bowlers in IPL being part of three-time champions.