Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), IPL 2023,
Kolkata Knight Riders (Image: BCCI)
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IPL 2023: Best Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Playing XI For The Tournament.  The Kolkata Knight Riders meant some serious business at the IPL 2023 mini-auction in Kochi on December 23. The two-time winners were inconsistent last year in IPL 2022 and failed to progress to the playoffs due to an inferior net run rate.

Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins (Image Credit: Twitter)

Heading into this year’s auction, KKR had a purse of INR 7.05 crore with 11 player slots (eight Indian and three overseas players).

They released most of their players including the likes of Pat Cummins (who made himself unavailable to focus on national duties), Sam Billings (backed out from the IPL 2023 auction), Aman Khan, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, and Sheldon Jackson.

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The Shreyas Iyer-led side traded bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur from the Delhi Capitals and New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson and Afghan wicketkeeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz from the Gujarat Titans.

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Lockie Ferguson
Lockie Ferguson (Photo: Twitter)

KKR opened their account with a steal buy in the form of promising batter Narayan Jagadeesan for INR 90 lakh. They then invested in the uncapped Indian domestic talent Vaibhav Arora for INR 60 lakh. Kolkata played the waiting game for a while before finally zeroing in on Suyash Sharma at his base price of INR 20 lakh.

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Shakib Al Hasan
Shakib Al Hasan (Image Credit: Getty)

The former champions managed another steal deal as they bought David Wiese for INR 1 crore. The Kolkata-based franchise came out all guns blazing during the accelerated auction, buying three seasoned players – Bangladesh duo of Litton Das for INR 50 lakh and Shakib Al Hasan for INR 1.5 crore and Indian opener Mandeep Singh for INR 50 lakh besides Kulwant Khejrolia.

Players bought in the auction: Shakib Al Hasan (INR 1.5 crore), Mandeep Singh (INR 50 lakh), Litton Das (INR 50 lakh), Kulwant Khejroliya (INR 20 lakh), David Wiese (INR 1 crore), Suyash Sharma (INR 20 lakh), Vaibhav Arora (INR 60 lakh), Narayan Jagadeesan (INR 90 lakh).

IPL Auction 2023
IPL Auction 2023. Image: Twitter

KKR Final Squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Weise, Kulwant Khejrolia, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan.

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IPL 2023: Best Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Playing XI For The Tournament

Venkatesh Iyer

Venkatesh Iyer
Venkatesh Iyer (Image: Twitter)

Venkatesh Iyer will open the innings for KKR in IPL 2023. He had a prolific IPL 2021 season amassing 370 runs in 10 matches at an average of 41.11 in the 2nd half played at UAE. His good form in the IPL earned him a place in the national side in T20Is & ODIs. However, he had a poor IPL in 2022, managing only 182 runs in 12 matches averaging 16.55. With the ball, he took 3 wickets in IPL 2021 averaging 23. He is the KKR opener and trump card in IPL 2023.

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