Unlike other seasons, they were missing their captain this year as Shreyas Iyer was out for the entirety of the tournament due to his back injury. Nitish Rana led the side valiantly but it was not enough for them.
KKR’s profound weakness this season has been a lack of consistency, which coupled with underperforming overseas players caused their sad demise. As KKR prepare for a stronger next season, they may have to look around and take some pragmatic decisions.
Their auction strategy and recruitment ahead of this season was beyond baffling. KKR spent INR 20.75 crore on three players before the auction, who were traded in. Lockie Ferguson (INR 10 crore) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (INR 50 Lakh) were signed from Gujarat Titans, whereas Shardul Thakur (INR 10.25 crore) was traded from Delhi Capitals in exchange for Aman Hakim Khan.
But if there is a mini-auction for the IPL 2024, we can expect a long list of players that KKR would like to offload. Almost all of their auction recruitments in 2023 had a dismal season, except young spinner Suyash Sharma.
Players like Narayan Jagadeesan, Anukul Roy and Kulwant Khejroliya also had a difficult season and looked below par whenever they got their opportunities. It has to be seen how KKR strategize their roster next season.
We may learn more about the players who they want to show the door to in the coming months, but here are a few names we believe the two-time IPL champions may deem surplus to requirements-
Mandeep Singh
KKR won’t mind letting Mandeep Singh go. The batter scored only 14 runs in three matches at an average of 4.67. The 31-year-old hasn’t been at his best in the last few years in IPL and may need to seek fresh pasture next season.
|Early Prediction✍️|: This will be Mandeep Singh’s Breakthrough season#IPL2023 #KKR #KolkataKnightRiders pic.twitter.com/6BbzvtxPfX
— ROHIT MAJI🇮🇳 (@Anonymous_Ro07) March 27, 2023
Litton Das
Litton Das’s brief stint with KKR ended in just a match. He scored 4 runs in a match and left the KKR squad for a family emergency. The Bangladeshi never came back to the team after that and it looks obvious the Knights would release him ahead of next season.
Lockie Ferguson
A 10 crore investment for KKR on Lockie Ferguson yielded next to nothing in return. The Kiwi speedster played three matches and went for plenty of runs. He leaked runs at an economy rate of 12.52 runs in an over. The Blackcaps bowler ended up with just 1 wicket in his name and KKR can’t afford to invest more than 10 pc of their transfer kitty on him next season.
Kulwant Khejroliya
Kulwant Khejroliya played two matches and never looked an IPL material in them. The left-arm pacer went for 13 runs per over and struggled in those matches. Although his deal was not expensive, KKR would be tempted to let him go.
Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana had a decent run in the last few games and the duo are also much younger than Khejroliya. Hence KKR won’t have any issue offloading Khejroliya for next season.
Johnson Charles
KKR ended up bringing Johnson Charles as a replacement for Litton Das later in the season. But the West Indies batter didn’t get a game under his belt. With Jason Roy in the team and Shreyas Iyer back next season, it looks certain Charles won’t be a knight next year.
