Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will aim to end their 10-year drought in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
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They are the third-most successful franchise in IPL history. having won two titles (2012 and 2014). KKR are certainly going to be one of the favourites heading into the tournament.
Speaking of which, this festival of cricket has already started to spread the early fervour with the auction, which is set to take place on 19th December 2023.
In this article, The Sporting News explains which players could be on KKR's radar for IPL 2024.
MORE: Who will CSK buy in IPL 2024?
Kolkata Knight Riders squad list for IPL 2024
Following the player retention/release deadline, KKR have retained just 13 players. They are:
- Shreyas Iyer
- Rinku Singh
- Nitish Rana
- Varun Chakaravarthy
- Venkatesh Iyer
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz*
- Jason Roy*
- Sunil Narine*
- Andre Russell*
- Anukul Roy
- Suyash Sharma
- Vaibhav Arora
- Harshit Rana
*overseas players
MORE: WPL 2024 Auction: Date, venue, and full list of 165 available players
Which players should Kolkata Knight Riders buy in the IPL 2024 auction?
Because KKR have released so many players and retained just 13 of them, their purse has a remaining spending amount of INR 32.7 Crores, which is the third-highest in the league. They have four overseas slots left to fill.
They released the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, and Tim Southee, which has left the bowling department very raw and inexperienced.
The batting looks pretty sorted with Gurbaz, Roy, Rinku, Rana, Shreyas Iyer, and Venkatesh Iyer. Add Russell and Narine's power-hitting into the mix and you get a pretty good batting lineup. However, they would hope to buy someone experienced to provide them stability in the middle-order.
Mitchell Starc / Josh Hazlewood
KKR released a total of six bowlers and have four uncapped Indian bowlers in the ranks. Apart from that, there isn't a single experienced overseas bowler in the roster. Yeah, they have retained Andre Russell, but his availability as bowlers remains a big question mark.
Thus, spending on someone like a Mitchell Starc or a Josh Hazlewood - coming on the back of World Cup glory - might invigorate the KKR bowling lineup.
MORE: Who will RCB buy in IPL 2024 auction?
Harshal Patel
As I mentioned earlier, KKR do not have an Indian capped bowler in their squad. The KKR bowlers in IPL 2023 struggled at the death. Who better to fix the death bowling issues than a T20 death bowling specialist in Harshal Patel?
Having lost his place in the Indian setup and having been released by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), a team that backed him a lot, it is unlikely that teams will engage in a fierce bidding war for the 33-year-old. KKR, then, can buy his for a cheaper rate than expected, even though his base price is INR 2 Crores.
Azmatullah Omarzai
The 23-year-old Afghan all-rounder was one of the stars of the recently concluded World Cup, scoring 353 runs at an average of 70.6. He was also handy with his right-arm medium-fast bowling.
Omarzai would certainly stabilize the middle-order as he showed at the 2023 World Cup that he is a tough nut to crack, while also providing a sixth/seventh bowling option.
Sameer Rizvi
KKR need to fill in at least five slots in their squad, and despite their big budget will need to execute a few shrewd deals. If they allow other sides to go after the big names, they could perhaps get Uttar Pradesh batter Sameer Rizvi for a cut-price fee.
Rizvi is likely to be on KKR's radar thanks to playing for UP with Rinku Singh and Nitish Rana. As an attacking Indian batter who can slot in anywhere in the top 5 positions, he would afford KKR flexibility in their lineup. Being surrounded by players such as Rana, Rinku and Shreyas Iyer would also ensure the spotlight is not on him to turn up in every single game.
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