The Knight Riders stood fourth last season but the squad continues to wear a match-winning look.
The 2017 Indian Premier League auctions saw records getting shattered one after the other as teams broke the bank to secure their choice of players. Over 350 players went under the hammer as teams tried to sort out their composition. Now we take a look at the teams and their compositions and where they stand going into the tournament which begins from April 5. In focus today are the Kolkata Knight Riders
The Knight Riders stood fourth last season and then before the auctions lost allrounder Andre Russell to an anti-doping code violation. This was a huge setback and addressing this issue became the primary concern for the Knight riders.
However, they have brought in reinforcements from the auction table in the form of Trent Boult, Chris Woakes and Nathan Coulter-Nile to fill up the vacant spot in among pacers. With talented Indian pacers in the form of Umesh Yadav and Ankeet Rajpoot already present in the squad, things do look good for the team from the eastern half of India.
Meanwhile, Gambhir will continue to bank upon his spinners – Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shakib Al Hasan and Piyush Chawla- to restrict oppositions and keep the scoreboard in check; especially in the matches at Eden Gardens. The home turf has always suited the spinners and the Knight Riders will hope that the spinners play their part.
But the vacuum of Russel will still be felt as the Knight Riders still lack a power hitter. It was here where Russell proved his mettle by belting the ball to all round the park. Question marks also loom over the form of Yusuf Pathan and Robin Uthappa. Added to that is the on and off form of Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey. Hence, it is the form of the batting unit which might prove to be the decisive factor for KKR’s rise or fall in IPL 10.
Squad strength: 23 (14 Indian, 9 Overseas)
Spent-Unspent Purse (In INR): 14.35 Crore – 5.40 Crore
Source by indianexpress….
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