Just like the other IPL franchises, the Kolkata Knight Riders also announced their list of retained and released players ahead of the IPL 2023 auctions, on Tuesday.
They retained 14 players, out of which three — Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson and Rahmanullah Gurbaz — were traded in from other franchises. If required, a first-choice playing XI can be easily formed from this set of 14 players. But the question is whether this XI would be good enough to compete with the other nine teams.
Let's not forget that KKR finished seventh in the last IPL season, that too after getting the golden opportunity to set up a formidable squad in the mega auctions. It would be a mistake to say that their players underperformed, rather their seventh-place finish sums up the poor auction work done by the think tank.
They splashed huge amounts to rope in Shreyas Iyer as their captain and also to get the likes of Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi and Pat Cummins back into the squad. As a result, they weren't left with much in their purse to plug the other major holes in their roster. So, they had to bide their time and wait for the last few rounds to fill up some key areas with players that other franchises weren't interested in. Naturally, those players weren't the best of the lot and KKR's outcome in IPL 2022 wasn't surprising either.
It is always difficult to recover from such poor work done in a mega auction but KKR had the chance to make amends heading into the IPL 2023 season, which they have botched once again.
With players like Pat Cummins, Alex Hales and Sam Billings opting out of the IPL 2023 season, KKR had the chance to use the combined sum of INR 10.75 crores secured from their release to get better resources in the auction. Instead they used that purse to trade in players like Lockie Ferguson and Rahmanullah Gurbaz from the Gujarat Titans, and Shardul Thakur from Delhi Capitals.
While Ferguson has been a proven match-winner in the IPL, his recent form and tryst with injuries don't bode well for KKR. They brought Thakur in to make up for Cummins' absence but the Indian all-rounder has been very unreliable in this format in terms of both batting and bowling returns. Although he picked up 15 wickets last season, Thakur was very expensive going at an economy rate of 9.79 runs per over.
Gurbaz also has all the talent in the world but he is yet to prove his consistency and reliability at the top of the order. He works quite well as a backup option. Is he good enough to slot in as a first-team player, though? Doubtful.
The doubts don't end here. KKR's star players Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, who have been retained, have a history of fitness issues as well. So, it is ideal to have good backups for them in the squad. But KKR can't be sure about doing well in that department either. Afterall, they have only INR 7.05 crores left — the lowest purse remaining among all franchises after the retention process.
They spent INR 10.25 crores to bring Shardul Thakur on board. Saving up that amount would have at least given them a real shot at getting a much more reliable all-rounder like Sam Curran in the auction, who could have been a first-team option on top of being a reliable backup in Russell's absence.
Ferguson is pretty injury prone as well and you need at least one good backup for him too. But KKR will struggle to secure that as well. Their roster also lacks good pace hitters. All of Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana, who constitute KKR's top four, struggled against high-end pace and hard lengths last season. It was a weakness that was exploited continuously by different teams, leaving their batting line-up completely exposed. But the KKR think tank can't be sure about filling that gap either. The reason is the same again — money, which they don't have.
With so little left in their purse, it looks futile for KKR to go into the auction now. INR 7.05 crores is just not enough to add seven or even five good players to the roster. They will have to make themselves content with leftover resources again, just like they had to in the last auction. This is a really sad state of affairs for a franchise that has already won two IPL titles in the past. The poor auction work done last year and the retention this time has launched them in a spiral that will probably see them struggling for at least the next couple of seasons.
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