Kolkata Knight Riders looking for a revamp in the mini-auction

image-lakvuatuKolkata Knight Riders (Source: iplt20.com)

Kolkata Knight Riders finished the IPL 2022 at the seventh position on the points table. They tried to renovate their whole team combination in the mega auction ahead of the 2022 season, but the team failed the test of the demands of the league. 

The management of Knight Riders have now decided to restructure their team once again and have released 16 players ahead of the mini auction for IPL 2023. It looks like the team wanted to persist with an aggressive attitude in this opportunity for restructuring their team. But the deals that they have gone through with during the trading window has left them with just INR 7.05 Cr in their purse. 

Here is a look at the released players of KKR:

Released Players

Released Players: Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, Aman Khan, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Sheldon Jackson.

Purse Remaining: INR 7.05 Crores

Overseas Slots Remaining: 3

Let us take a deeper look into the players who are still now retained by KKR.

Batters: Shreyas Iyer (INR 12.25 Cr), Rinku Singh (INR 55 Lakh), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (INR 2 Cr). 

Average Price: INR 4.93 Cr

All-Rounders: Nitish Rana (INR 8 Cr), Venkatesh Iyer (INR 8 Cr), Andre Russell (INR 12 Cr), Sunil Narine (INR 6 Cr), Anukul Roy(INR 20 Lakhs), Shardul Thakur (INR 10.75 Cr). 

Average Price: INR 7.49 Cr

Bowlers: Umesh Yadav (INR 2 Cr), Tim Southee (INR 1.50 Cr), Harshit Rana (INR 20 Lakh), Varun Chakravarthy (INR 8 Cr), Lockie Ferguson (INR 10 Cr). 

Average Price: INR 4.34 Cr

Probable XI

If we try and build an eleven from the retained players of KKR, it would look like:

  1. Venkatesh Iyer
  2. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (O) (wk)
  3. Shreyas Iyer (C)
  4. Nitish Rana
  5. Rinku Singh
  6. Andre Russell (O)
  7. Sunil Narine (O)
  8. Shardul Thakur
  9. Umesh Yadav
  10.  Tim Southee (O)
  11. Varun Chakravarthy

The eleven looks good, but their are a few minor concerns. The spots that hey need to look at during the mini-auction are-

  • 1 quality Indian spinner
  • 1 Indian pacer as back up
  • 1 Wicket Keeper batter
  • 1 lower order power hitter with the ability to bowl as a backup of Andre Russell (as he is prone to injury)

KKR can try and target an Indian spinner like Mayank Markande or Murugan Ashwin. As an Indian pace back up they can look at Jaydev Unadkat. We can talk more about the players KKR can target after the player pools for the mini-auction are released. 

Also Read: Samarth Vyas, the untouched gem