New Delhi, March 18 -- Ever since New Zealand's nine-wicket demolition of England in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2026, there has been a constant chatter on whether the New Zealand duo of Finn Allen and Tim Seifert be accommodated in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) playing XI. The three-time champions start their IPL 2026 campaign against Mumbai Indians on March 29.

One of the major reasons for KKR's eighth-place finish in IPL 2025 was their inconsistent starts by Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine at the top of the order. While Narine was able to amass around 250 runs in the entire season, De Kock could only accumulate 152 runs to cast a pale shadow of what actually he can do on his given day.

With the likes to Narine and Cameron G...