Despite, exhibiting a below-par season last year, KKR have put a lot of faith in their squad and have retained 17 players. They have released 5 players in Tom Banton, Chris Green, Siddhesh Lad, Nikhil Naik and M Siddarth. Hence, they now are left with a sum of 10.75 Crore in their wallet for IPL 2021.
Given the fact, they don’t possess a hefty sum, it is quite possible that they might rope in young domestic talents. Their recent Twitter post on their official handle does suggest the same.
KKR Eyes Syed Mushtaq Ali Stars:
In their recent post, Kolkata Knight Riders have listed down five top performers in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy i.e., Kedar Devdhar (Baroda), Avi Barot (Saurashtra), Rahul Singh (Services), Sheldon Jackson (Puducherry), Venkatesh Iyer (Madhya Pradesh). There is a big possibility that the franchise might bid heavily for one of them.
For the unversed, Kedar Devdhar is the second-highest run-getter in the SMAT 2021, accumulating 349 runs in 8 matches at an average of 69.80. He plays as a wicket-keeper batsman and the franchises could look him as a back-up keeper in the squad. A T20 specialist, Avi Barot too would be on the radar of a few franchises. The Saurashtra batsman impressed with his power-hitting ability, having scored 283 runs in 5 games at an astonishing strike rate of 184.
Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t live up to the expectations last year. The fans expected the franchise to dominate IPL 2020, given the number of world-class players they possessed in their squad. However, the franchise could only manage to win 7 matches out of 14 and finished fifth in the points table. It remains to be seen how they go about their business in IPL 2021.
England limited over’s skipper, Eoin Morgan will continue as the skipper of KKR, while Dinesh Karthik will don the wicket-keeping gloves and remain as an integral part of the set-up.
