Kolkata Knight Riders only have 13 players in their present squad, as they released nine from their Indian Premier League 2016 squad. One does not need a rocket scientist to tell us that the KKR will be the busiest team in the IPL 2017 auctions, which takes shape on Monday in Bengaluru.
KKR had qualified for the Playoffs last season, but they could not do much when it mattered most to reach the final. And if they are to be a serious contender in IPL 2017, they need to bring in some quality players. Out of the nine released players, six were foreigners.
KKR also received a mammoth blow when their star all-rounder Andre Russell was banned from cricket for a year for violating his whereabouts clause, meaning he will miss the tenth edition. The team management might be regretting now for allowing all-rounders like Jason Holder and Colin Munro to leave.
Russell's absence has left a huge hole in the KKR team, and there is a serious need to get a world-class all-rounder in their squad. Shakib Al Hasan is the only all-rounder in the KKR squad at present. There are quite a few quality all-rounders like Ben Stokes, Corey Anderson, Thisara Perera, Angelo Mathews and Colin Munro and the only like-for-like replacement from the list could the Englishman.
However, getting Stokes will not be easy by any means as the Englishman is said to be on the radar of many teams. With a base price of Rs 2 crore, there might be a bidding war amongst franchises for Stokes and it depends if KKR are willing to spend heavily on a player as they have to buy around ten or may be even more with the available purse of Rs 19.75 crore.
If Stokes becomes too expensive, they need to look at other options, and Anderson could be a big buy as the player will be available for the entire length of IPL 2017. If they ignore Stokes, they could have two decent all-rounders as well. They need to think well before spending on an all-rounder as a player like Andre Russell cannot be replaced easily.
But, KKR's problem does not lie only with all-rounders. They might have decent batsmen with the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn and Yusuf Pathan, amongst others, but KKR also need to buy some fast bowlers in the auction as they released John Hastings, Shaun Tait and Morne Morkel.
Now, they are looking for a new set of fast bowlers. Only one will not be sufficient as they need to get around three fast bowlers. Looking at the pool of players available, they could do well if they can manage to sign Ishant Sharma, but the problem being his base price of Rs 2 crore. If there are not many takers for the lanky bowler, KKR can get the player for decent money. Varun Aaron could be an option for less money as he has a base price of Rs 30 lakh.
However, there are plenty of choices when it comes to international fast bowlers, with the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Johnson, Kagiso Rabada, Tymal Mills, Kyle Abbott and Matt Henry. Out of these, Cummins and Johnson are going to cost them big money, but players like Mills, Abbott and Rabada could be a huge addition.
KKR should keep Mills as their number one priority and do whatever it takes to buy the player, who is a T20 specialist. The Englishman also proved his class with some brilliant performances in the recently-concluded T20 series against India.
Coming to spinners, Kolkata Knight Riders have Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav, so one does not see any reinforcements required in this department.
Overall, KKR should keep their focus on getting a few all-rounders and some fast bowlers (both Indian and international). Though they have good batsmen in their squad, it would be better if they get some bench strength in the batting department. They could look at options like Ben Dunk and Mohammad Shahazad, Manoj Tiwari, Evin Lewis and Cheteswar Pujara too.
