Kolkata Knight Riders a Team with Extraordinary Faces
The 2020 season will be the 13th season for the Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders. They are one of the eight teams that will complete in the 2020 Indian Premier League . The franchise, which has gained immense popularity due to its association with celebrity owners, qualified for the IPL playoffs for the first time in 2011. They eventually became the IPL champions in 2012, by defeating Chennai Super Kings in the final. They repeated the feat in 2014, defeating Kings XI Punjab. The team is currently being captained by Dinesh Karthik with Brendon McCullum as new team coach.
Background
Player retention and transfers
In 2020 auction, Pat Cummins has become the most expensive foreign player ever in IPL history.
The Kolkata Knight Riders retained 13 players and released ten players. On 12 September, Ali Khan becomes first USA cricketer to join IPL as replacement for Harry Gurney.
Retained players: Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Harry Gurney, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi.
Released players: Chris Lynn, Carlos Brathwaite, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Nikhil Naik, KC Cariappa, Joe Denly, Srikant Munde, Yarra Prithviraj, Anrich Nortje.
Traded In: Siddhesh Lad.
Auction
KKR went in with 35.65 Cr INR in the purse. They bought Australian all-rounder Pat Cummins for a whopping 15.50 Cr which was also the highest amount for an overseas player at the auction. He was bought by two-time IPL winner Kolkata Knight Riders with sum of INR 15.5 crores. With this, he has become the most expensive foreign player ever in IPL history. Apart from this, the KKR also included 48-year-old leg-spinner Praveen Tambe in their team. He was bought at their base price of INR 20 lakhs. They got England captain Eoin Morgan for 5.25 Cr. They additionally got hardly any progressively great players like Rahul Tripathi, Tom Banton and Chris Green.
Players bought: Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, M Siddhartha, Nikhil Naik, Chris Green, Pravin Tambe.
Team Analysis
ESPNcricinfo’ wrote “Like most teams in the Indian Premier League, Kolkata Knight Riders also have a great playing XI, which has six bowling options and many impact players. The team has done an excellent job by buying Morgan, Banton and Green. However, Pat Cummins sold for a record amount will also be under pressure to perform well for him. Apart from this, the team has tremendous all-rounders in the form of Narine and Russell. The bowling attack of the team will decide how it performs in 2020.”
Indian Premier League
Preseason
Australian player Chris Green has been banned due to his suspected action in January 2020. Chris Green was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders at a base price of INR 20 lakhs. Whether or not Chris will participate in the upcoming IPL season will now depend on the League’s Governing Council approval. Because their ban will remain intact even in the tournament that starts March 29. Kolkata Knight Riders bought this 26-year-old Chris for 20 lakh rupees INR.
Senior leg-spinner Pravin Tambe will not play in the IPL 2020. A senior official of BCCI confirmed that tambe would not be able to play in this IPL season since Tambe has played in T10 league.
Offseason
Brendon McCullum expressed happiness after being appointed KKR’s coach, saying it was an honor for him. McCallum gave a statement, ‘It is a matter of pride for me to be the coach of KKR. Knight Rider franchise is a big team of IPL and CPL. This team has excellent players. I will try to make the team strong.
Gautam Gambhir said in the Star Sports Cricket Live show
If we look at the team as a whole, there is no alternative to Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan or Sunil Narine. The team has no middle-order batsman when Eoin Morgan gets hurt.
On 13 March 2020, the BCCI postponed the tournament until 15 April, in view of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. On 14 April 2020, Narendra Modi said that the lockdown in India would last until at least 3 May 2020, with the tournament postponed further. The following day, the BCCI suspended the tournament indefinitely due to the pandemic for IPL 2020.
On 17 May 2020, the Indian government relaxed nation-wide restrictions on sports events, allowing events to take place behind closed doors. On 24 May, Indian sports minister Kiren Rijiju stated that the decision on whether or not to allow the tournament to be conducted in 2020 will be made by the Indian government based on “the situation of the pandemic”.In June 2020, the BCCI confirmed that their preference was to host the tournament in India, possibly between September and October. On 24 July 2020, it was confirmed that the tournament would start from 19 September 2020.
Squad of KKR
