The Kolkata Knight Riders, KKR were crowned the champions last season as they went on to win the title for the third time in the history of the IPL. Before the season of 2023, Gautam Gambhir was brought from the Lucknow Super Giants to the Knight Riders camp.
Much remained anticipated about the veteran’s return to the franchise for whom he had played most of his IPL career. Under Gambhir’s leadership, the KKR team won the title for the first time in 2012, the fourth team to do so after the Royals, Deccan Charges and the Super Kings.
Gambhir next led them to another title clinch in 2014 as the KKR side defeated the likes of Kings XI Punjab who had chances to lift the cup with their red-hot trio of Maxwell, Miller and Bailey. Gambhir’s career also gave KKR players like Sunil Narine who went on to be the IPL veteran.
Foreseeing all this he was brought into the KKR camp as their mentor, and he gave immediate results with his unconventional techniques. He brought in the World Cup winner Aussie bowler, Mitchell Starc for a whopping amount of INR 24.75 Crores, which seemed insane.
He brought back Sunil Narine as the KKR opener after several awful seasons with the bat for him, still, he gave immediate results as the all-rounder seemed to be back with the return of his old skipper. Gambhir produced many things special with Rana, Arora, Chakrvarthy, Raghuvanshi and Phil Salt and led them to a title triumph after 9 years of trophy drought.
Though more than players KKR is first looking to bring in a replacement for Gambhir who left the team’s mentor post to be called as Team India’s Head coach and also included Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate for the same as his assistants.
Top 3 Players who might be Retained by KKR
Let’s have a look at the best players who can be retained by KKR ahead of the IPL:
3. Andre Russell
Russell has been a special player for many seasons now for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Andre considered one of the most explosive players in the format has often been seen performing with both bat and ball in the IPL.
Russell also had a decent season in 2024, as he produced some great knocks alongside special performances with the ball and picked crucial wickets. The man with the golden arm for Kolkata might be one of the choices for being retained this season as well.
2. Phil Salt
The English opener though did not have a very good season with the English side in the T20 World Cup, yet his promising form in the IPL 2024 will make him the best possible option to be retained for the next season.
Especially with the striking low cost of the English player, KKR will not look to increase his price by letting him enter the IPL mega-auction.
1. Sunil Narine
Narine after his stunning return with the bat was named the Most Valuable Player of the IPL 2024. He scored 488 runs and picked 17 wickets, a stat that displays a masterclass all-rounder, yet he did not receive a spot in the Windies team which is disheartening.
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Sunil Narine has been retained in all seasons since he arrived in 2012. With the likes of KKR hunting for a new captain with Rohit Sharma or SKY, Shreyas Iyer might not be retained and hence Narine seems the first preference to be included among the retained players.
