The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season is set to commence on a grand occupation as the it will be the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who will hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the opening match of the season at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
But even the IPL 2024 drama has begun, BCCI official and IPL Chairman Arun Dhumal made a big revelation about the IPL 2025 Mega Auction, an opportunity for all the refresh their squad, where each and every franchise are mandatory to release all the players can retain a maximum of 3-4 players in total.
And when it comes to refreshing the squad, one team that needs some refreshment is the Kolkata based Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The Kolkata is the third most successful team in the history of the competition, having won the Trophy twice, in 2012 and 2014 under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir.
Meanwhile, after serving two seasons as mentor with the Lucknow Super Giant, Gambhir is back at old stomping ground as their mentor and he would be looking to rebuild the team that can challenge for the Trophy. But, who could be those players who may be retained by KKR ahead of IPL 2025 Mega Auction, let’s take a look.
Rinku Singh
Rinku Singh made a name for himself in the IPL 2023 with his consistent performance, including that historic 5 sixes in the last 5 of the ball to score 30 runs and win the match for KKR when 29 runs were required of the last 5 balls to win against Gujarat Titans. Since, Rinku has gone on to play for India and has done a really great work and looks certain to feature in the T20 World Cup 2024. Other than his performance, another KKR should retain Rinku Singh is because he has become a fan favourite all around the country and can bring a good number of fans to support just like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma.
Varun Chakravarthy
It has been roller-coaster of a story for Varun Chakravarthy. Varun was once a failure while playing for the Punjab Kings, but since he has joined KKR, he is closing in to become KKR’s highest Indian wicket-taker. He has been consistently doing well in the domestic cricket and another good season will see Varun don the purple and gold colour in 2025 as well.
Suyash Sharma
The young Suyash Sharma was a revelation of the season in the IPL 2023. There’s a saying, “Unearthing Gem” and KKR took it seriously when it comes unearthing Suyash Sharma. Suyash was picked by KKR without any prior professional cricket. The youngster did really well for KKR in IPL 2023 and for Delhi in the domestic cricket and preserving a young bowler like Suyash would be a priority for KKR, who would eventually go on take Varun Chakravarthy’s place in the team.
The KKR team is full of some talented players, whether you talk about captain Shreyas Iyer, or the other Iyer i.e. Venkatesh Iyer or the overseas stars like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, much about their retention depends on their season in the IPL 2024.
