What’s the story
Ahead of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) pacer Vaibhav Arora is eager on bettering his abilities.
The 28-year-old has expressed his want to be taught from New Zealand’s veteran speedster Tim Southee, who has joined KKR as a bowling coach for the upcoming season.
Arora made his KKR debut in 2023 and has taken 36 wickets ever since. He was retained by the Knight Riders forward of the IPL 2026 public sale.
Arora’s position in KKR’s title run
Arora was instrumental in KKR’s title-winning run in IPL 2024, selecting up 11 wickets from 10 matches at a mean of 25.09.
As the group prepares for the brand new season, Arora has been working onerous on the coaching camp to hone totally different elements of his bowling.
He mentioned, “Overall, the preparation is solid. We’re playing practice matches and also honing our variations in the nets,” mentioned Arora, based on a KKR’s press launch.
Excitement over working with Southee once more
Arora is wanting ahead to working with Southee, who has joined KKR as bowling coach.
The former New Zealand skipper has a whopping 776 worldwide wickets, probably the most for the Kiwis.
Notably, Southee performed his last IPL season with KKR (2023). This was Arora’s maiden season on the KKR camp.
“Southee is a legend with tons of experience. We have been teammates with KKR before in 2023, and I learned a lot from him,” mentioned Arora.
A have a look at his T20 profession
Arora labored his fingers to the bone to enter the IPL. He was a web bowler for Punjab Kings in IPL 2020.
KKR picked Arora within the IPL 2021 public sale, however he didn’t get a possibility to play for them.
The pacer was lastly signed by PBKS for ₹2 crore for the 2022 season. However, PBKS launched him after giving him 5 video games.
KKR as soon as once more signed him for 2023, and he has been their mainstay pacer ever since.
His T20 numbers
As of now, Arora has taken 36 wickets from 32 IPL matches at a mean of 28.22. His economic system price reads 9.55. Overall, the KKR pacer has 75 wickets in 69 T20s at a mean of 27.20.
