Tactical masterpiece at the auction table once again, can it transform on to the field?
Kolkata Knight Riders have always been the team with the plan when it comes to the auctions. They had their task cut-out. With 42cr spent on Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine, all they needed were 2 handy foreign players and 2 effective Indian players. So they decided to make hay when the sun shone - right at the beginning of the auction.
It was like a whirlwind start the openers would give in a T20 game - taking the opposition by surprise in the process. Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana and Shivam Mavi - all picked up for big numbers right at the beginning. And they seemed satisfied after that - only failing to get a good wicket-keeper in the process. But at the end of Day 1, they had successfully retained 7 of their players from previous seasons - but at the cost of a huge hole in their pocket. If only they had applied the same thought about Shubman Gill before letting him go.
Day 2 was a somber affair more so because they could not afford the key players they sought. But they still seemed satisfied with the picks from the first day. So they played the wait and watch game - and it sounded like another tactical approach. As the day wore out and the remaining teams' purses started shrinking, KKR stepped up the pursuit and a host of players came on-board including Ajunkya Rahane, Alex Hales, Sam Billings (to fill the wicket-keeper slot), Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee and everything turned into a tactical masterpiece at the table again. Let's hope they can transform the same tactical approach to win on the field as well.
Probable XI: Rana, Narine, Hales/Billings, Rahane, Jackson (wk), Shreyas (c), Venkatesh, Russell/Southee, Cummins/Nabi, Mavi/Umesh, Varun
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