Players KKR Likely to Release/Retain: The IPL 2024 mini-auction is scheduled for December 19 with all the franchises weighing up at their squads, with regards to release and retain which players. The player retention deadline is November 26 and Kolkata Knight Riders have some work to do.
KKR finished seventh on the points table last season, with just 6 wins from their 14 matches. Good news this time around is the return of skipper Shreyas Iyer with Gautam Gambhir being named as a mentor for the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League.
The likes of Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Varun Chakravarthy will surely be the core of the team and be retained. The two keepers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and N. Jagadeesan may also be kept along with last season’s newfound youngsters.
Having said that, it is possibly time for the old guard to move on with the West Indian duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine ending their ordeal of diminishing returns year on year. The pair have been synonymous with the Knight Riders brand across the globe now but the franchise think-tank must look beyond the big names. Other international stars, like the Kiwi pacers Lockie Ferguson and Tim Southee, as well as Bangladeshi pair of Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das, may be axed.
Even though players like Mandeep Singh, Anukul Roy and Umesh Yadav may not merit ousting at the offset, but will give KKR the chance to target players more suited to their play style or for players who may suit the current roles vacant.
The released players will no doubt free up a significant amount for the auction purse, which can then be reassigned to finding their immediate replacements. Some of the players can be rebought from the open auction on the cheap.
Players KKR Likely to Release
Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Anukul Roy, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das, Mandeep Singh, Shakib Al Hasan, Aarya Desai
Players KKR Likely to Retain
Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, N. Jagadeesan, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora
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