Kolkata Knight Riders making headlines after IPL 2020 auction. KKR bought 9 players in the auction. The bid which caught everyone’s eye was KKR’s record-breaking bid on Pat Cummins. Kolkata franchise spent 15.5 crore rupees on the Australian bowler. However, Gautam Gambhir is not happy with KKR’s shopping in the auction. He feels that the team will face problems in the upcoming season.
Gautam Gambhir Slams KKR Management
Gambhir thinks the only positive part about KKR in the IPL auction is buying Pat Cummins. Gambhir said, “The positive part about Pat Cummins is that you can expect him to take wickets with the new ball because he has a good swing and he bowls at good pace, he might be a concern for the death overs but he has good bowling skills and he has been with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014 and has improved a lot since then,”
However, Gambhir highly criticised KKR franchise for not providing back-up for the middle order. Former KKR skipper said, “If you look at the squad as a whole, there is no backup for Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine who is a one of a kind bowler. If Eoin Morgan suffers an injury, the team has no middle order overseas batsman,”
Gambhir said that the franchise should have looked to add some all-rounders. He added, “The management could have gone for a Mitchell Marsh or Marcus Stoinis who would have given more depth to the squad, so you have to hope all these players are there for the entire series,”
KKR Squad After IPL Auction
Bought (9): Eoin Morgan (5.25 crore), Pat Cummins (15.5 crore), Rahul Tripathi (60 lakh), Varun Chakaravarthy (4 crore), M Siddharth (20 lakh), Chris Green (20 lakh), Tom Banton (1 crore), Pravin Tambe (20 lakh), Nikhil Naik (20 lakh)
Retained: Dinesh Karthik (c), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Harry Gurney, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi