Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders have been without an Indian Premier League title for a decade. The franchise finished seventh in the last two editions, after a runners-up finish under former England captain Eoin Morgan in 2021.
KKR, the champions of 2012 and 2014, bought ten new players at the auction for Rs 31.35 crore ahead of the 2024 edition of the IPL. Four overseas players and six Indian players have joined the franchise.
Mitchell Starc, who last played the IPL in 2014 and 2015, broke auction records as KKR bought him for Rs 24.75 crore. The left-arm pacer, who won two ODI World Cups for Australia and a T20 World Cup, will spearhead the pace attack of the Shreyas Iyer-led team.
Young Indian left-arm pacer Chetan Sakariya (Rs 50 lakh) will be keen to learn from Starc.
Iyer will be returning to the league after a one-year gap. The right-handed batter missed the last edition due to a back injury.
Manish Pandey (Rs 50 lakh), part of KKR's victorious IPL campaign in 2014, could be a surprise package. He will reunite with his former captain, Gautam Gambhir, who has joined as mentor for the season.
India international wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat (Rs 50 lakh) is also part of the team.
KKR also replaced Jason Roy with England wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt for Rs 1.5 crore, and bought Afghanistan's spin star Mujeeb Ur Rahman for Rs 2 crore to strengthen the bowling department.
KKR probable playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora
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