IPL Team Preview: KKR
Team Name:- Kolkata Knight Riders
Captain:- G Gambhir
Last season wasn’t one KKR would like to remember coming into IPL 7. They came 7th in group stage out of the 9 teams with just 6 wins out of their 16 games. The opening match of IPL 7 will see them face defending champions Mumbai Indians on 16th March. KKR wouldbe looking to emulate their 2012 season win this time around. With the teams undergoing almost a complete makeover this time around, it remains to be seen how the new teams fare as a unit.
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad for IPL 7
Going into the auctions,KKR retained 2 of their star players- Captain Gautam Gambhir and West Indies’s spinner Sunil Narine. Moreover, they used their Right to Match cards to get back South African All-Rounder Jacques Kallis and Indian All-Rounder Yusuf Pathan.
Squad strength: 21
Costliest player: Jacques Kallis Rs 5.5 crores
Amount spent: Rs 59 crores (Rs 1 crore remaining)
Overseas players: 8
Batsmen: 5; Bowlers: 8; All-rounders: 6; Wicketkeepers: 2
| G Gambhir | Batsman | Retained |
| S Narine | Bowler | Retained |
| Player | Type | Price Paid |
| Jacques Kallis | All-Rounder | ₹5,50,00,000 |
| Robin Uthappa | Batsman | ₹5,00,00,000 |
| Piyush Chawla | Bowler | ₹4,25,00,000 |
| Yusuf Pathan | All-Rounder | ₹3,25,00,000 |
| Shakib Al Hasan | All-Rounder | ₹2,80,00,000 |
| Morne Morkel | Bowler | ₹2,80,00,000 |
| Ranganath Vinay Kumar | Bowler | ₹2,80,00,000 |
| Umesh Yadav | Bowler | ₹2,60,00,000 |
| Manish Pandey | Batsman | ₹1,70,00,000 |
| Chris Lynn | Batsman | ₹1,30,00,000 |
| Patrick Cummins | Bowler | ₹1,00,00,000 |
| Ryan Ten Doeschate | All-Rounder | ₹1,00,00,000 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | Batsman | ₹70,00,000 |
| Andre Russell | All-Rounder | ₹60,00,000 |
| Manvinder Bisla | Wicket Keeper | ₹60,00,000 |
| Veer Pratap Singh | Bowler | ₹40,00,000 |
| Kuldeep Singh Yadav | Bowler | ₹40,00,000 |
| Debabrata Das | Wicket Keeper | ₹20,00,000 |
| Sayan Sekhar Mandal | All-Rounder | ₹10,00,000 |
Last year’s Strategy: Bisla and Gautam Gambhir opened the batting for KKR in IPL 6 and weren’t successful in getting their team good starts throughout the tournament. South African All-Rounder Kallis came down at No. 3 and added stability to the top order. Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan came at the to boost the Run rate with the mammoth hits. Narine was their most successful bowler with his variety spin. Lee and Balaji took up the duties of fast bowling whereas Bhatia and Kallis were good in patches with their bowling.
This year’s Strategy: They retained two of their stars; Gambhir and Narine, going into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 auction. While going for Piyush Chawla and Yusuf Pathan seemed absurd to say the least, buying back Jacques Kallis seemed a good deal, and acquiring the services of Morne Morkel was the icing on the cake. It looks like they will employ Robin Uthappa as the wicketkeeper, but they still lack a solid T20 middle-order bat.
Possible Best Playing 11:
1. Robin Uthappa (Wicketkeeper)
2. Gautam Gambhir (c)
3. Jacques Kallis (OVERSEAS)
4. Shakib Al Hasan (OVERSEAS)
5. Yusuf Pathan
6. Manish Pandey
7. Piyush Chawla
8. Morne Morkel (OVERSEAS)
9. R Vinay Kumar
10. Umesh Yadav
11. Sunil Narine (OVERSEAS)
Availability:
NO INTERNATIONAL DUTIES FOR ANY OF KKR’S PLAYERS N BETWEEN IPL. SO,FULL STRENGTH SQUAD AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION.
