Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 18 (ANI): Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season, former Indian pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji expressed that the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Ajinkya Rahane should not bat at 'anything less than number three' and laid out a fiery top-four for the three-time champions.

A mouth-watering clash with five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at Mumbai on March 29 will start KKR's campaign. However, leading up to the tournament, there have been speculations about what the top-order could look like with names like Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sunil Narine, Tim Seifert and Finn Allen all being capable opening batters. While the team's marquee buy, Cameron Green, has experience as an opener, he has had more success as a number four batter for Australia, with 347 runs in nine innings, including four fifties at a strike rate of 162.14.

Speaking on JioHotstar's 'Game Plan - Know Your Team', JioStar expert Balaji laid down the top four of the NZ pair Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, Rahane and Cameron Green.

'I always feel that KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane should bat in the top order. He shouldn't bat at anything less than number three. He has done phenomenally well with CSK at number three and scored a lot of runs. So, he batting one down would be good for both, him and KKR. Cameron Green can come out to bat at number four. That will give him time to settle down and then start going after the bowlers. So, a top four of Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Ajinkya Rahane and Cameron Green is going to be the go-to one,' he said.

Last year, Rahane scored 390 runs in 12 innings at an average of 35.45 and a strike rate of 147.72, with three fifties for KKR. Throughout the entire season, he batted at number three.

Balaji also said that the KKR's top-order has to step up this season, habing not retained the 2024 title-winning batters like Phil Salt and trophy-winning skipper Shreyas Iyer.

On the need for KKR's top order to step up this season:

'Somebody needs to step in now. Probably, Cameron Green or Finn Allen. And of course, you have a young talent like Angkrish Raghuvanshi. Their time has come now. If they do well, KKR will get massive momentum. Their performance will surely be something to watch out for,' he concluded.

Kolkata Knight Riders full squad for IPL 2026: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Rahul Tripathi (Rs 75 lakh), Finn Allen (Rs 2 Cr), Tejasvi Singh (Rs 3 Cr), Tim Seifert (Rs 1.50 Cr), Cameron Green (Rs 25.20 Cr), Sarthak Ranjan (Rs 30 lakh), Daksh Kamra (Rs 30 lakh), Rachin Ravindra (Rs 2 Cr), Prashant Solanki (Rs 30 lakh), Matheesha Pathirana (Rs 18 Cr), Kartik Tyagi (Rs 30 lakh), Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 9.20 Cr), Akash Deep (Rs 1 Cr). (ANI)