With the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate taking up roles with the Indian Cricket Team, the Kolkata Knight Riders could see themselves going on with a rebuild as the deadline day approaches for franchises to announce their retentions ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) mega-auction.
The first pick for retention as per a report by the Times of India (TOI), is likely to be the West Indies’ premier all-rounder, Andre Russell who would get a 50 per cent pay rise with the top retention being worth 18 crores.
Russell has been a crucial part of KKR’s title-winning campaign in 2023 scoring 225 runs with the bat at a blistering strike-rate of 185 and also handy with the ball, chipping in with 19 wickets to become the joint-second-highest wicket-taking bowler alongside teammate, Harshit Rana to share the spot.
The West Indies all-rounder has taken his game to a new level where he is a threat with both bat and ball. Also considering his long-time association with the franchise, it makes sense to reward the star all-rounder with the biggest pay cheque.
The report also suggested that the franchise would be interested in retaining the skipper, Shreyas Iyer but not as their topmost retention. This could see the Mumbai-based batter look to ply his trade elsewhere with the likes of Punjab Kings, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in need of a captain to lead the franchise.
KKR also have a lot more talent within the squad that could see Iyer not be the topmost retention. The likes of Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana among others could be solid retention options should the franchise go with this route.
With deadline day slowly approaching, franchises will be keen to hold on to their best talents and hope to bolster their squad to ensure that KKR can go on and make it their second title in a row.
Franchises are to announce their retentions by October 31 and i will be interesting to see who the three-time title-winning side retains in the squad.
Comments
0 comment