Back-to-back seasons of subpar seventh-place finishes shed light on the grave need for the Kolkata Knight Riders to inspire change within the team to reach their previous heights again.
Here’s a look at how KKR fared during the mini-auction held on Tuesday:
Players Bought:
KS Bharat – Rs 50 Lakh
Chetan Sakariya – Rs 50 Lakh
Mitchell Starc – Rs 24.75 crore
Angkrish Raghuvanshi – Rs 20 lakh
Ramandeep Singh – Rs 20 lakh
Sherfane Rutherford – Rs 1.50 crore
Manish Pandey – Rs 50 lakh
Mujeeb Rahman – Rs 2 crore
Gus Atkinson – Rs 1 crore
Sakib Hussain – Rs 20 lakh
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KKR have not won the IPL since 2014 and the franchise will look to finetune their squad come the IPL 2024 player auction on 19 December.
One of the biggest news for KKR was the retention of West Indian duo Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. But, the bigger picture here is that the Knight Riders released a plethora of big name players such as the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Shardul Thakur, Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson in the retention period. And a need to replace and fill in these roles will be much needed.
KKR’s massive overhaul though has enabled them to acquire a substantial chunk of money to make the required purchases as per their will. With names such as those of Rinku Singh and Ventakesh Iyer already retained, batting firepower will mostly not be their primary requirement. But, with 12 slots (4 of those being overseas) remaining, a new gameplan is to be drawn for the Kolkata Knight Riders to climb up the rankings and compete for the ultimate prize yet again.
How They Spent Their Money: Kolkata had the most slots to fill coming into the auction and they ended up filling up 23 slots out of a possible 25 by the end of it all.
Kolkata went out to purchase 10 players altogether during the auction picking up 5 bowlers, 3 batters, 1 all-rounder and 1 wicketkeeper to round out their squad.
Biggest Buy: Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore)
Remaining Purse: Rs. 1.35 crore
Players Retained: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer, Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Players Released: Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das, Aarya Desai, David Wiese, Narayan Jagadeesan, Mandeep Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Johnson Charles
KKR Squad Strength: 23
Overseas Players Recruited: 8
KKR Updated Full Squad for IPL 2024: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer (c), Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain.
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