The newly appointed mentor of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Gautam Gambhir led the think tank meeting ahead of the upcoming IPL 2024 Auction. Apart from Gambhir, head coach Chadrakant Pandit, assistant coach Abhishek Nayar and managing director Venky Mysore were also present in the meeting.
The two-time champions recently named Shreyas Iyer as their skipper as he took over the reigns from Nitish Rana ahead of IPL 2024. Earlier, KKR also signed Gautam Gambhir as the southpaw left the same post from Lucknow Super Giants.
Speaking about KKR, despite releasing the likes of Shardul Thakur and Lockie Ferguson just after an year of trading them, the Men in Purple still have a pretty strong side.
The likes of Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer have been proven performers for KKR. We have had some magical moments from Rinku last season when he smashed Gujarat Titans (GT) bowler Yash Dayal for five sixes in a row to win the game for his team and we can expect many more moments like that from the star who is currently getting chances in Indian colours as well.
The strength of KKR also increases with the inclusion of Shreyas Iyer for the upcoming season. Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz are also two good additions from the last year for KKR. Still Kolkata needs one or two good pacers in their line-up. With the amount of money left, KKR might be going for the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood or even Gerald Coetzee
KKR Purse Available: Rs 32.7 crore
KKR Slots Remaining: Twelve (Four Overseas)
Players released by KKR: Litton Das. Shakib Al Hasan, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson. Narayan Jagadeesan, Mandeep Singh, Aarya Desai, David Wiese. Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav. Tim Southee and Johnson Charles.
Players retained by KKR: Rinku Singh (55 Lakhs), Varun Chakaravarthy (8 crore). Venkatesh Iyer (8 crore), Nitish Rana (VC) (8 crore), Shreyas Iyer (C) (12.25 crore), Jason Roy (2.8 crore), Sunil Narine (6 crore), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (50 lakh), Suyash Sharma (20 lakh), Anukul Roy (20 lakh), Andre Russell (12 crore), Harshit Rana (20 lakh) and Vaibhav Arora (60 lakh).