Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey

Cricket News: 3 players Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) can target in the IPL 2023 Auction | Players KKR could buy for IPL 2023

The two-time IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders had a forgettable season in IPL 2022 as they finished in the seventh position. Now, they are in a spot of bother before the auction as they have only 14 players in the squad with a purse of INR 7.05 crores. Three of their big names – Pat Cummins, Alex Hales and Sam Billings – will miss IPL 2023 owing to personal reasons.

They have the challenge of building a strong squad with the little purse remaining, which includes capable backup options. They already have the likes of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh in their ranks and they traded in Shardul Thakur and Lockie Ferguson to boost their seam bowling. Let’s take a look at how they sum up at the moment before the IPL 2023 auction.

Current Squad

Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz*, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell*, Sunil Narine*, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson*, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Anukul Roy, Tim Southee*

Players Released

Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, Aman Khan, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, S Jackson

Probable Playing XI

Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy

Purse

• 7.05 Crores Left
• 3 Overseas Slots

Needs

• A wicket-keeper batter.
• Pace bowling all-rounder as a backup for Andre Russell.
• An Indian spinner. 

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Players Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) can target for IPL 2023

Curtis Campher

Andre Russell is KKR’s main player and the franchise needs him to remain fit. However, the reality is he is injury prone. It is quite evident that they need a good overseas pace bowling all-rounder as his backup. As KKR doesn’t have the purse to go for big all-rounders they need to be very careful with the players they pick.

Curtis Campher can be an ideal backup for Andre Russell. He can bowl 2-3 overs and is capable of scoring big with the bat. He has done a great job for Ireland in international cricket. Campher will come at a cheap price in the auction and can prove to be an excellent buy for the Knight Riders.

Phil Salt

Phil Salt is another excellent player KKR can target in the upcoming auction. He is a very destructive batter and can take the game away from the opposition in just a few overs.

Salt has a strike rate of 151.6 in the first six overs in T20 cricket. KKR already have Rahmanullah Gurbaz who is exceptional in the powerplay, but they don’t have any wicket-keeper batter other than him.

Salt will be a good backup opener who can keep wickets. If KKR can somehow fit both of them in the eleven, they’ll be one of the most destructive batting pairs in the powerplay.

Sanjay Yadav

Tamil Nadu’s Sanjay Yadav is another excellent player KKR can pick in the auction. The spin-bowling all-rounder is very talented and was with the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2022.

He was in exceptional form in TNPL 2022. Sanjay scored 452 runs in nine matches at an average of 90.40 and strike rate of 186.77. He picked up six wickets as well.

KKR have Varun Chakravarthy as their second spinner after Sunil Narine but he hasn’t been in the best of form in the last couple of seasons. Sanjay Yadav can give them four overs of his left-arm orthodox and he is more than capable with the bat so it’ll increase their batting depth as well.

KKR surely messed up on the auction table in the mega auction last year and trading in Shardul Thakur for a big sum of 10+ crores is a questionable move. Despite all this, they can still put together a solid squad and challenge opponents at all stages of an innings.

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