Auction for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was held in Chennai on Thursday, the 18th of February. 8 franchises participated in the auction in compliance with the rules of participating in the Covid-19 situation. 298 players were selected for this pool. 57 out of them have been bought by the franchisees at the auction.
Each franchise can form its team with 18 to 25 players. Where a maximum of 8 overseas players can be made available in each team. Also, franchisees were allowed to spend a maximum of Rs 85 crores to organize their teams. In this article, some aspects of Kolkata Knight Riders are reflected.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has formed up their team with 25 players. Where there are 8 overseas players. Before the auction, KKR retained 17 players from the old squad and released 8. As a result, there were slots in the team to buy 2 overseas players. But the main attractions of the team were world-class all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and former Indian national team off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. Although Shakib has played for KKR before, this is the first time Harbhajan Singh will wear KKR’s jersey.
Out of the existing Rs 10.75 crore with KKR, they have bought 8 new players in the auction utilizing Rs 7.55 crores of it. Where there are 2 overseas players. They are Shakib Al Hasan, the former captain of the Bangladesh national cricket team and the world’s best all-rounder, and Ben Cutting, the bowling all-rounder of the Australian national team. KKR has spent the most to get Shakib Al Hasan on the team. Although his base price was Rs 2 crores, KKR bought him for Rs 3.20 crores. On the other hand, former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (Rs 2 crore) became the second most expensive buy for them on the day. KKR has completed their auction with Rs 3.20 crores still on their hands.
The newly purchased players:
Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) – 3.20 crore
Harbhajan Singh – 2.00 crore
Ben Cutting (Australia) – 0.75 crore
Karun Nair – 0.50 crore
Pawan Negi – 0.50 crore
Sheldon Jackson – 0.20 crore
Venkatesh Iyer – 0.20 crore
Vaibhav Arora – 0.20 crore
The names of the retained players: Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Tim Seifert, Dinesh Karthik, Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrior, Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, and Lockie Ferguson.
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