IPL Auction | Kolkata Knight Riders look at Green and keeper-opener to overcome Russell red

Shreyas Iyer lifted the Indian Premier League with Kolkata Knight Riders and then departed for Punjab Kings, taking the culture with him. In his wake, the Purple Brigade decided to adopt the Punjab strategy instead, and lo and behold they find themselves with the biggest purse in IPL mini-auction history. INR 64.3 crores is a lot of money for the only franchise that excercised the right to retain six players before the preceding mega auction, and then proceeded to buy back four more players from the title-winning squad. While the clearing out is gutsy, it is also an admission of a tragic showing at last year's mega auction. A major chunk of that (23.75 crores to be precise) was Venkatesh Iyer, as was Andre Russell at 18 crores. With two bonafide starters thus departed, the franchise finds itself by far the most work to do at the auction, with a possible 12 slots to fill including six foreigners. Unless you are a Punjab fan, this is completely new territory, so welcome to the nerd guide.

Top order

1 Sunil Narine✈️ 2 To be picked 3 Ajinkya Rahane

Backup(s): Manish Pandey

Another IPL season begins with the perpetual question of whether Kolkata Knight Riders should continue to go down the pinch-hitter opening route with Sunil Narine. Truth is, Narine up top is well beyond an experiment by now, even if it continues to make the purists uncomfortable, and has proven to be the best utilisation of resources for the franchise regardless of how Narine turns up. Even if the Caribbean batter goes out cheaply, he does not eat up too many bowls, making his lack of runs more like a missed bonus than a genuine failure in the batting unit.

The harsher truth is, KKR have used 15 openers since the squads were reset at the mega auction for IPL 2022. Even the arguably worst-run franchise in the league, Lucknow Super Giants, have only used 14 openers in the timeframe, while Delhi Capitals is the only other team to have used 10-plus openers in the last four seasons. If KKR are struggling to lock in one quality opener, how are they supposed to get two? It is no coincidence that the one year they had an opener worth his Salt, they lifted the trophy. Like Salt, nearly half of those openers have been wicketkeepers, which shall again be the case for IPL 2026, given there are barely any middle-order wicketkeepers in the market. Similarly, no IPL-proven Indian wicket-keeper is on the market, but KKR have anyway traditionally fielded a foreign wicket-keeper opener.

The eye-opening form of Quinton de Kock may tempt Kolkata to place faith in him again, but the same cannot be said for Rahmanullah Gurbaz, given his struggles abroad. Other options in the first set include Ben Duckett, Jonny Bairstow, Finn Allen, and most notably Jamie Smith -- the Englishman has already shown his high ceiling at the international level, has age on his side, and a carefree batting attitude has definite shades of Salt. Tim Seifert and Tom Banton in the second foreign set are also attractive options after a brilliant year in T20 cricket has brought both of them back into the national team fold. However, if KKR still want to go down the Indian alley, options include Narayan Jagadeesan and KS Bharat.

As for three, a team with a 64 crore purse would ideally want a better-suited player to the T20 game than Ajinkya Rahane. However, he did end last season as their highest run-getter while striking at an impressive 147.72. Add to that the captaincy tag, his excellent form in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, as well as the ascendancy of Abhishek Nayar to head coach, and it is difficult to look beyond Rahane for the number three spot.

Possible target(s): Jamie Smith, Quinton de Kock, Ben Duckett, Jonny Bairstow, Narayan Jagadeesan, KS Bharat

Middle order

4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi 5 Rinku Singh 6 To be picked 7 Ramandeep Singh 8 To be picked

Backup(s): Rovman Powell, Anukul Roy

First things first, Kolkata HAVE to reserve the number four spot for Angkrish Raghuvanshi for the entire season. He only fell under 25 twice in the eight times he batted there, his portfolio including knocks like 37(28) in a 111-run chase against PBKS on a minefield and a 30-ball half-century against Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, failings of the batting order around him made him susceptible to a lot of shuffling around, which proved to be a dampener for his personal contributions.  

Now, onto the most pertinent question -- will KKR buy back Venkatesh Iyer? Despite breaking the franchise record for him, KKR only batted Venky in seven of the 11 games he played, none of which culminated in a notable knock, barring a rapid 60 against the Sunrisers. He constantly looked clueless as to what role he was supposed to play in the unit, simply because he was not the right fit for what KKR needed at the spot, especially with Rinku Singh screaming for more batting time lower down the order. A player who does fit the requirements for KKR, though, is Cameron Green, given he is more flexible, explosive, and an incomparably better bowler than Iyer. Green is undoubtedly the hottest property in the IPL market for 2026, and it would be absurd if he is not KKR's top priority, given the mega purse they have, especially considering he'll feature in the first set of players. Green can prove to be a Russell and Iyer replacement all at once. 

So the real question is, whether KKR can afford both Green and Iyer, as well as do they really need both of them? Little can go wrong bidding for a capped domestic middle-order basher averaging 35 and striking at 140 with plenty of IPL experience to fall back on, but those same things mean Iyer won't be available for cheap this time around either. If KKR again blow their budget on him, they'll feel compelled to force him into the lineup where there is no space, so they might be better off keeping clear. Better backup options would be the likes of David Miller, Liam Livingstone, or even an Abhinav Manohar, since they are more suited to lower-order roles and have finishing experience to boast of. 

At seven, Ramandeep Singh seems like a shoo-in, keeping in mind the investment KKR have made in him for three years now. Having had to settle for cameos and a bits-and-pieces role so far, the departure of Russell may finally pave the way for Ramandeep to have his breakout season. The presence of Rovman Powell is also a nice headache to have, as the Windies all-rounder is clearly entering his peak and is showing in the ILT20 that he has developed into a world-class spin basher with big scores on tracks that stay low and skid. Him being a starter at eight would mean KKR have to field an all-Indian pace attack, but with three pace bowling all-rounders for support in Green, Ramandeep, and Powell. Otherwise, they can always opt for the ever-reliable Anukul Roy if they need more variation in spin.

Possible target(s): Cameron Green, David Miller, Liam Livingstone, Michael Bracewell, Sikandar Raza, Abhinav Manohar

Bowling Attack

9 Harshit Rana 10 Vaibhav Arora 11 Varun Chakaravarthy 12 To be picked

Backup(s): Umran Malik

The Indian pace duo of Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora are set to be fixtures in the lineup after back-to-back successful seasons in tandem, as is the number one-ranked bowler in the world, Varun Chakaravarthy. That leaves Kolkata a foreigner short in the lineup, having let go of Anrich Nortje and Spencer Johnson after neither managed to take over the role of a spearhead last year. However, they have retained the services of Umran Malik, who has finally recovered from a long series of injury setbacks to be back bowling rockets for Jammu and Kashmir in a decent SMAT campaign. He has the ability to transform into the leader of the attack, as they might need him to if they field two foreign all-rounders in the middle-order, but KKR will be wary of placing all their chips on him.

Given fast bowlers are likely to be one of the cheaper commodities at the upcoming auction, Kolkata will be well advised to bowl a diverse unit. If they deem Rana capable of handling new ball duties with Arora, a death specialist such as Matheesha Pathirana becomes the foremost choice, having been released by CSK just a year after being retained for 10-plus crores. The resurgent Mustafizur Rahman is another name KKR could target, the Bangladesh quick having evolved into a more complete bowler in recent times, which has helped him deliver successive impressive campaigns for CSK and DC, respectively.

If KKR instead want a new-ball bowler, the Kiwi trio of Matt Henry, Will O'Rourke, and Jacob Duffy are up for grabs, as are two premier all-phase quicks in Lungi Ngidi and Gerald Coetzee, the former impressing for RCB in the limited opportunities he got last season en route to the title. In the Indian cadre, the likes of Auqib Nabi and Akash Madhwal are likely to garner the most attention, but Kolkata might be praying to sneak in Akash Deep for cheap, given his understanding of the Eden Gardens deck where he plays his domestic cricket.

Possible target(s): Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman, Lungi Ngidi, Matt Henry, Gerald Coetzee, Auqib Nabi, Akash Deep