The year 2012 was a historic and a glorious season for the Kolkata based Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2012, winning their first IPL championship by beating the most successful team Chennai Super Kings in the final.
Going into the IPL 2012, KKR was mainly a mid-table team. KKR made a huge investment in the year 2011 buying India international Gautam Gambhir, who was appointed the captain of the team and the rest is history. Gambhir today is one of the best captain to play in the IPL.
The year 2012 was massive one for the KKR franchise. After almost a 5-years existence, they won their first IPL Trophy that year.
KKR played CSK in the final of the IPL 2012, who were/are one of the most successful team in the competition. Batting first, CSK scored 190 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina scored fifty plus while Murali Vijay scored 42 runs.
KKR have been never successful to chase a target that big. However, it was batting master-class from Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis as KKR won the match in the last over.
The playing XI that Kolkata Knight Riders played that night are not much recognised expect for few of them. Today in this article, we take a look at KKR’s Playing XI from the IPL 2012 final and what are they upto now.
Openers: Manvinder Bisla, Gautam Gambhir
KKR’s openers for the match were Gautam Gambhir and Manvinder Bisla. While Gambhir failed to score big run, Bisla played an inning of 89 runs. Gautam Gambhir today works as a commentator for broadcasting channels and is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party in politics. He also worked . For Bisla, after a great 2012 campaign, he failed to capitalise on that and was released in 2014. He joined RCB thereafter but didn’t find a place. Nowadays, he is away from cricket and enjoying life outside cricket.
Middle-Order: Jacques Kallis, Laxmi Shukla, Yusuf Pathan
KKR’s middle-order consisted of Jacques Kallis, Laxmi Shukla and Yusuf Pathan. While the other 2 didn’t score big runs, Jacques Kallis was the other hero for the team, scoring 69 runs.
Nowadays, Jacques Kallis is working as a coach and has also been head coach of the KKR team after his retirement. He has also worked as batting consultant for South Africa and England. Laxmi Shukla has meanwhile been a member of the Parliament in West Bengal and currently enjoying his life. Yusuf Pathan is enjoying his life after cricket and is sometimes seen playing in the Legends League Cricket.
All-Rounders: Shakib, Manoj Tiwary
The two all-rounder that day were Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan and Manoj Tiwary. Shakib scored 11 runs while Manoj remained unbeaten and hit the winning run. Shakib Al Hasan is still currently playing for the Bangladesh cricket team and is the captain as well. For Tiwary though, he is still playing domestic cricket for Bengal and is also the sports minister of Bengal.
Bowlers: Brett Lee, Rajat Bhatia, Sunil Narine, Iqbal Abdullah
KKR’s bowling unit consisted of the pace bowler like Brett Lee, world’s one of the best pacer that days. However, it wasn’t the day for the bowlers. Lee went expensive and didn’t manage any wicket. Narine, Bhatia and Iqbal also were hit hard as they were able to take only 3 wickets.
Brett Lee nowadays works as a commentator and analyst for various broadcasting companies. As for Bhatia and Iqbal Abdullah, the former is enjoying life outside cricket after announcing retirement in 2020 while Abdullah is still playing domestic cricket. And coming to Sunil Narine, he is currently the only member of that playing XI who is still playing for the KKR team in the IPL as of 2022 is a legend of sort.
