Kolkata Knight Riders went all out at the auction, grabbing big names like Cameron Green and Matheesha Pathirana. But in the middle of these headline moves, they quietly picked up Sarthak Ranjan for 30 lakh, a name that probably flew under most people’s radar. Sarthak, by the way, is the son of politician Rajesh Ranjan, better known as Pappu Yadav.
The Knight Riders grabbed Sarthak at his base price when his name popped up in the IPL 2026 Auction. He’s 29, and while he’s been playing for Delhi in domestic cricket, he hasn’t exactly been a constant presence in the team.
Still, Sarthak turned heads in the Delhi Premier League 2025. He didn’t just show up, he finished as the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament.
Across 9 innings, he hammered 449 runs, smashed 21 sixes, and kept his average at 56.12 with a strike rate of 146.73. Not bad at all.
Sarthak Ranjan is a Knight 💜💜 pic.twitter.com/uSZyvTgHMc
— adi. (@Hurricanrana_27) December 16, 2025
Sarthak Ranjan welcome to KKR 💜 pic.twitter.com/JtWSSs7eq2
— Ashish Shrivastava (@ashishayush1177) December 16, 2025
🚨 DPL 2025 Second Highest Run Scorer – Sarthak Ranjan comes to KKR.pic.twitter.com/axmdjjQNuz
— KKR Vibe (@KnightsVibe) December 16, 2025
IPL mein Sarthak Ranjan ko ekveera koi teen chance De dhamal macha kar Rakh denge @RCBTweets @msdhoni @Hardik Pandya @mipaltan @DelhiCapitals pic.twitter.com/YqnFrIxFRK
— Mithun Kumar Paswan (@paswan_mit49068) December 16, 2025