Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) might have been eliminated from IPL 2023 with last night’s one run defeat against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), but they put on some wonderful performances throughout the tournament.
Losing their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer just before the start of IPL 2023, KKR were under a bit of pressure before the tournament started, as the stand-in skipper Nitish Rana had no experience of captaining an IPL side before. But Rana didn’t just provide KKR inspiring leadership, he led from the front with decent personal performances as well.
KKR, however, might still want to make some changes in their squad before the next mini auction.
Here are the 3 players Kolkata Knight Riders might release before the next IPL –
Shardul Thakur
Shardul Thakur had played the last season of IPL for Delhi Capitals, but he was traded to Kolkata Knight Riders for IPL 2023. KKR management was, however, never really clear in what role they wanted to use Shardul.
At the start of the tournament, Shardul was playing as a batting allrounder, because he was not bowling much in any phase of the innings. He bowled a little bit towards the latter stages of the league stage of the tournament, but he couldn’t make a mark with either bat or ball for KKR. Shardul might be the first player to be released by KKR before next season.
N Jagadeesan
Narayan Jagadeesan had put on some wonderful performances in the Vijay Hazare trophy just before the IPL 2023 auction, which was the reason why KKR placed bids for him and managed to buy him as well.
Jagadeesan got his opportunities at the start of the season in his prefered opening slot, but he couldn’t justify his selection and was soon dropped, as KKR opted to go with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Jason Roy and Venky Iyer in their top 3. Jagadeesan might be another player, apart from Shardul, who might not be seen in the KKR jersey next season.
David Wiese
The veteran allrounder David Wiese, who returned to the IPL after a long while, never settled in the scheme of things for KKR. He played a couple of games, but he was not regularly used with the ball by the KKR skipper Nitish Rana.
Even with the bat, Wiese was spotted right down the order and he hardly ever got enough time to build his innings and make an impact with the bat. Kolkata Knight Riders might let David Wiese go as well, come the next mini auction.
