Internet Desk: Two-time Indian Premier League champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have surprised everyone in the player retention after they left out their most successful skipper Gautam Gambhir and kept Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. During the player auction on January 27 and 28 in Bengaluru the team will get another opportunity to keep some of their former cricketers. As per the current retention policy, a franchise can retain mostly 5 cricketers from their previous squad via combination of player retention and right-to-match (RTM) cards at the time of auction.
The auction day is still three weeks away and nobody knows whether KKR will buy their old players or not but they would be eying to buy some top names in IPL 2018.
Here we will discuss on which five players the KKR management should target this season during the auction:
Quinton de Kock/ Jos Buttler: After the KKR management haven’t retained their most successful skipper Gautam Gambhir, they will be eyeing to buy a new opener and no one would be better than Quinton de Kock or Jos Buttler as they both opened in IPL in the previous seasons and has the capability to win the matches on their own. De Kock didn’t play in the last IPL but in the year 2016 he played 13 matches for Delhi Daredevils and scored 445 runs and his highest score was 108. On the other hand Jos Buttler has played two seasons in the IPL for Mumbai Indians where he played 24 matches and scored 527 runs with a strike rate of 145.98.
Chris Lynn: The sensational Australian batsman is most likely one of the most destructive batsman in T20 cricket. After some poor show in 2016, he set the IPL season 10 on fire after with his brilliant batting. Though the Knight Riders management didn’t retain him in this season but they can easily buy him in the auction with right-to-match (RTM) card.
Robin Uthappa: He is a key batsman for KKR from the year 2011. When the Kolkata based outfit won their very first IPL title he became the top scorer in the tournament. From there on he always played a pivotal role in KKR’s top order along with Gambhir at the opening slot. The team management will definitely think of buying him again in the auction.
Manish Pandey: He has also been a warrior for the two time IPL champions from 2011. In many games his shot playing abilities in the middle overs helped the Kolkata side to win the matches. He single handedly helped KKR to win their second title in 2014 by playing a knock of 94 runs in the final. With his inclusion again in the side Shah Rukh Khan’s side will be nothing but invincible.
Kuldeep Yadav: Arguably he is the most talented chinaman spinner in World cricket right now, though the Knights didn’t retain him in the team which was a huge surprise for everyone.
Arguably the most exciting spinner in the world cricket at the moment, Kuldeep Yadav not being retained by the Knight Riders has come as a huge surprise for many. He surprised everybody with his variations to take a hat-trick at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The two-time champions have the option to buy him again through the RTM card and they should definitely use it.