Two-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will look to rekindle old magic under young Shreyas Iyer to win their 3rd Indian Premier League title in the 2022 IPL. Remarkably, at the last edition in the United Arab Emirates, KKR reached the final. But a change of captain will make things interesting for the franchise.
The first game will be a replay of the IPL 2021 finals, with KKR looking to take revenge on the defending champions. IPL 2022 will be a 10 team event, bringing franchises from Lucknow and Gujarat to the league.
Australia’s Pat Cummins will lead the pacesetters, while Lockie Ferguson will add firepower to KKR’s pace attack with an array of promising Indians – Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav and Rasikh Dar. They said goodbye to some of their veteran players, Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, and welcomed players like dynamic batter Shreyas Iyer for a total of INR 12.25 crore, senior test batter Ajinkya Rahane (INR 1 crore), the England white-ball -Specialists Sam welcome Billings (INR 2 crore), one of the hottest local talent Sheldon Jackson (INR 60 lakh) to name a few.
Kolkata Knight Riders will surely miss the helpful pace bowling conditions that Eden Gardens offers.
IPL 2022 auctions
The Kolkata Knight Riders made their first big move in the 2022 Indian Premier League mega auction when they picked up Shreyas Iyer and then retained Australia Test captain Pat Cummins. Kolkata retained Nitish Rana and Shivam Mavi for what could be described as an extravagant sum totaling Rs 15.25 crore. And it was only in the final stages of the second day auction that they brought in the likes of Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Alex Hales and Sam Billings, all of whom could potentially be a constant in IPL 2022.
KKR FULL SQUAD
Shreyas Iyer (C) Pat Cummins, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, B Indrajith, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav, Aman Khan
