Since Gautam Gambhir left Kolkata Knight Riders in 2018, the franchise has tried three different captains and various different sets of players. but they have still not won the IPL trophy again. Their last IPL title came in 2014 when Gambhir was still leading the side.
For the next IPL season, Kolkata Knight Riders have changed their coaching staff and now it will be Chandrakant Pandit who will be in charge of the side. Pandit has been a very successful coach in Indian domestic cricket, but this is the first time he has been given the charge of an IPL side.
Because of the new head coach in place now and him being the chief decision maker of the franchise in cricketing matters, KKR might make some surprise calls ahead of the mini-auction in December.
Here are the 2 players whom Kolkata Knight Riders might release ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction –
Pat Cummins
Although Pat Cummins is a big name in international cricket and he is even the captain of Australia in two out of three formats of the game, T20 cricket is not the strongest format Cummins and he often struggles with the ball in the shortest format, particularly in subcontinent conditions.
Cummins is not the kind of bowler who relies on his variations or yorkers a lot. He has got pace, but he relies on length deliveries most of the time and often ends up bowling a lot of boundary-hitting balls on slow pitches. KKR’s new management might want to make the unpopular call of releasing Cummins from the squad.
Shivam Mavi
Although Shivam Mavi is a very promising young bowler, KKR is spending a lot of money on him and he is still in his development phase. IPL is a tournament where every team requires at least 7 Indian players in the XI and to spend in excess of 7 crore INR on Mavi with no guarantee of him being in the XI, it’s probably a deal that is too expensive for KKR.
The new management might want to release Mavi and go into the auction looking for a domestic Indian bowler who comes at a cheaper price so that they can spend the extra budget on a couple of other big players and strengthen their squad further.
