Knight Riders: Not much money, many gaps to fill
With Chandrakant Pandit as their new coach, Knight Riders could well make some out-of-the-box buys from the Indian domestic circuit
Ekanth
19-Dec-2022
Lockie Ferguson is back with Knight Riders, and could well be one of their key personnel • BCCI
Who they've got
Kolkata Knight Riders were very active ahead of retention day, letting go of a bunch of players, and trading in Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. They currently have a 14-man squad, with four pace and two spin options in the bowling department. They have reliable first-choice top-order batters too. But there are a lot of gaps to fill and not a lot of money in their pockets.
Kolkata Knight Riders were very active ahead of retention day, letting go of a bunch of players, and trading in Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. They currently have a 14-man squad, with four pace and two spin options in the bowling department. They have reliable first-choice top-order batters too. But there are a lot of gaps to fill and not a lot of money in their pockets.
Current squad: Shreyas Iyer (capt.), Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Tim Southee, Nitish Rana, Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Umesh Yadav
What they have to play with
Knight Riders have the smallest purse among the ten teams - INR 7.05 crore (USD 850,000 approx.) - and a maximum of 11 slots to fill, three of which could be overseas players.
Knight Riders have the smallest purse among the ten teams - INR 7.05 crore (USD 850,000 approx.) - and a maximum of 11 slots to fill, three of which could be overseas players.
What they need
The likely targets
Phil Salt is an attacking option at the top of the order, and KKR could possibly buy him at a low cost.
They might have an eye on N Jagadeesan and Mayank Agarwal, but both of them are likely to interest many other teams, and all of them have more money than Knight Riders.
David Wiese could join Russell to bolster both power-hitting and death-bowling departments.
Knight Riders might look at little-known, uncapped Indian players, partly because they don't have a lot of money, and partly because their new coach, Chandrakant Pandit, knows everything there is to know about the Indian domestic circuit.