Ahead of IPL 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have released plenty of pace options such as Shardul Thakur, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson and Umesh Yadav among a few others. Hence, the two-time champions are expected to bid for a lot of pacers in the upcoming IPL auction as they are left with only Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora and Andre Russell. Their spin department looks sorted but it is the pacers and a quality Indian opener is what the team lacks at the moment.
As per former cricketer Aakash Chopra, the newly-appointed KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir can go after Dilshan Madushanka, who was terrific in the recently concluded ODI World Cup. The 23-year-old picked up 23 wickets in nine matches as he finished as the third-leading wicket-taker in the tournament. Chopra believes that the pacer will attract a lot of franchises in the auction and can even go for INR 6-8 crore.
“They have not given themselves too many options. They have two Indian fast bowlers in the form of Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora but they won’t be able to do the job alone. Andre Russell’s bowling ability remains a huge doubt in any case," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“I feel they will go shopping for fast bowlers. Very few franchises will be able to outbid them because they have a lot of money. If I know Gautam Gambhir well, his sights will be set on Madushanka. So Madushanka might actually have a field day. He might get sold for six to eight crores,” he added.
KKR have INR 32.3 crore left to spend in the IPL auction. Initial reports claimed that the franchise was interested in having Mitchell Starc in the mix but more will come to light during the auction, which is slated to take place on December 19 in Dubai.
from IPL Live Score | IPL News, IPL 2024 Updates, Squads & Results - CricTracker