Kolkata Knight Riders squad for IPL 2023
Kolkata Knight Riders finished seventh in the points table of the IPL 2022
|(IPL)
Having traded for two expensive international players in the form of Shardul Thakur (10.75 cr) and Lockie Feguson (10 cr), Kolkata Knight Riders are left with a purse of 7.05 crore for the 2023 IPL auction. But with Venky Mysore at the helm, expect them to do some unexpected business on Dec 23.
IPL 2023 KKR Team Player List
- Shreyas Iyer - ₹12.25 crores
- Nitish Rana - ₹8 crores
- Varun Chakravarthy - ₹8 crores
- Anukul Roy - ₹20 lakhs
- Ashok Sharma - ₹55 lakhs
- Tim Southee - ₹1.5 crores
- Andre Russell - ₹12 crores
- Venkatesh Iyer - ₹8 crores
- Sunil Narine - ₹6 crores
- Rinku Singh - ₹55 lakhs
- Umesh Yadav - ₹2 crores
- N Jagadeesan - ₹90 Lakhs
- Vaibhav Arora - ₹60 Lakhs
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz - ₹50 Lakhs
- Shardul Thakur - ₹10.75 Crores
- Lockie Fergsuon - ₹10 Crores
- Suyash Sharma - ₹20 lakhs,
- David Wiese - ₹1 Crore,
- Kulwant Khejroliya - ₹20 lakhs,
- Litton Das - ₹50 Lakhs,
- Mandeep Singh - ₹50 Lakhs,
- Shakib Al Hasan - ₹1.5 Crores
Ahead of the 2023 retention announcement, KKR decided to part ways with a bunch of players notably Pat Cummins. However, before they did that they decided to not wait for the auction as far as the player acquisition was concerned and dipped their feet into the trade market. Not only did they replace Cummins with Ferguson, and get an all-purpose Indian star in the form of Shardul Thakur, they even secured the services of Rahmanullah Gurbaz to ease the pressure on their opening pair. In Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana, they have two excellent players with the bat to complement the ever-reliable bowling spine of Sunil Narine and Umesh Yadav. Andre Russell and Rinku Singh have shown their ability with both ball and bat in recent seasons, so it is relatively safe to say that KKR know who their core players are.
The one spot that they still have not quite figured out is the wicketkeeper spot. While Gurbaz can definitely assist in that position, they have too many foreign players who are already guaranteed a spot in the team. They decided not to keep Sheldon Jackson in their squad so it will be interesting to see who Mysore decides to go for in the auction.
The team needed a wicktekeeper batter and they fulfilled the postion with their first move in the mini auction taking N Jagadeesan for ₹90 Lakhs. They have also added to the fast bowling buying Vaibhav Arora for ₹60 Lakhs. Although they had the least money remaining when entered the auction hall, they did a decent job with that, which included signings of Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das, and David Wiese.
