IPL 2022: A Complete Breakdown Of Kolkata Knight Riders' Squad

Analysis of Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) Squad for IPL 2022.

When the IPL 2022 Mega Auction began, it looked like Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) is onto something but in the end, a lot changed. 

KKR's mix and match Auction process began when they retained four players - Andre Russell(16cr), Varun Chakravarthy(12cr), Venkatesh Iyer(8cr), and Sunil Narine(6cr) - for a price of 42 crores from the 90 crore purse limit. 

At the end of the Auction, KKR was left with 55 lakhs in the purse and a 25 player squad. Kolkata bought a total of 11 uncapped players for 10.55 crores while paying 37 crores for 10 capped players in the two-day mega event. In total, KKR brought back nine players - five bought, four retained - for 66.6 crores. 

KKR's most expensive player was soon-to-be-announced captain Shreyas Iyer for 12.25 crores. The next expensive player was Nitish Rana for 8 crores. The highest-paid overseas player for KKR was Pat Cummins for 7.25 crores. 

KKR's Mix And Match Squad 

Kolkata began Auction by bringing Shreyas Iyer into the setup. In between three power hitters - V Iyer, Russell, and Narine - an anchor in the form Shreyas made sense and decent buy given his spin-hitting abilities. 

They further brought in Pat Cummins and pace bowling allrounder to give depth in the batting and pace hitting ability in the end. But after that, it got a bit haywire. They got two anchors - Ajinkya Rahane and Nitish Rana. A total of three anchors. 

For the most part of the Auction, KKR didn't buy a wicketkeeper and when they got it, it was Sheldon Jackson and Baba Indrajith - two uncapped Indians and overseas Sam Billings. Lack of untested wicketkeepers means they are stuck with Billings or need to play either Jackson or Indrajith - both anchor-based batters. 

KKR also lacks a number 7. The lack of a tested Indian allrounder will hurt Kolkata here. There is a good chance, Knight Riders will have to play Rinku Singh at that spot or Jackson. 

KKR has a good pace bowling bench with some good variety but the spin department is something the management hasn't covered fully. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy are two spinners. They don't have many backups for them - Mohammad Nabi and Anukul Roy are the two. 

One thing which KKR has is some decent pace bowlers with the ability to bat, like Chamika Karunaratne and Tim Southee, something they will have to utilise to have a good season, which otherwise doesn't look exciting. 

KKR left a lot of holes to be filled and players to develop themselves into roles they haven't done before. It's a risk they have taken but the catch is - it doesn't look like an investment that will even have long-term returns. 

KKR IPL 2022 Squad - Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Sam Billings, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy, Sheldon Jackson, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Alex Hales, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav, Aman Khan