Vaibhav Arora describes ’emotional attachment’ with KKR, says it’s like ‘own family’ – India TV

Vaibhav Arora had a fantastic campaign, clinching 11 wickets in ten matches in the Indian Premier League 2025 season. He supported Harshit Rana and Mitchell Starc as the Kolkata Knight Riders went on to win third third title in the competition. The team management was heavily impressed by Vaibhav’s influence with the new ball and for the same reason, they bought him once again for INR 1.8 crore in the mega-auction.

Ahead of the new season, the 27-year-old opened up on his association with the franchise and noted that he feels it is like his ‘own family’. Vaibhav added that he is emotionally attached with the Knight Riders family and was relieved when the Purple and Gold brigade won the bidding war in the auction as he didn’t want to play for any other franchise. 

“It was special to be back with KKR. I’ve been with the Knight Riders since the last four seasons and there is an emotional attachment with the franchise. It feels like my own family. So, when KKR picked me again, I was relieved to go back to the team I won the title with last year. I didn’t want to play for any other team”, Vaibhav said.

Vaibhav was lethal with the new ball and ahead of the 2025 edition, he mentioned to have worked on his death-bowling as well. He aims to be effective in that area of the game and revealed to have added slower deliveries, yorkers and other variations to his arsenal.

“I did well in the powerplay in 2024, and I’ll take confidence from that. However, I have worked on my death bowling, and I want to be as effective as possible even at that stage of the game. I’ve focused on my slower ones, yorkers and other variations even in red ball cricket. I’ll try to bring that same execution to white ball cricket to try and do well at any stage of the game”, he added.