India, March 21 -- Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have shown they can win the Indian Premier League (IPL) but can they defend it? Going into the 18th season, only two teams have done that: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2011, Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2020. At five apiece, only CSK and MI have more titles than KKR.

In Quinton de Kock, Knights have a player who knows how it is done. De Kock was key to MI's success in 2019 and 2020, scoring over 500 runs, including four half-centuries, in each season and with a good strike rate (132.91 in 2019 and 140.50 in 2020). Each time De Kock scores over 500 runs in a season, his team makes the play-offs.

Bought for Rs.3.6 crore at last November's mega auction, De Kock is among the few new players in purple...