Two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), on Thursday (November 15) announced the list of retained and released players ahead of the auctions slated to be held next month in Jaipur.
While KKR has retained their core group which includes their skipper Dinesh Karthik, the franchise has released the Aussie duo of Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc along with six others.
Out of the 21-member squad that played in IPL 2018, KKR has retained 13 including senior players Robin Uthappa, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.
Shivam Mavi, Shubhman Gill, Kamlesh Nagarkoti – the three players who were picked after their performances in India’s U-19 World Cup winning campaign have been retained by KKR.
“The retention was triggered by how our season went in 2018. As we all know, we had a big auction before the last edition, where we assembled a new team. We had retained only Andre Russell and Sunil Narine (on that occasion), so it was practically a new squad, and we were quite excited by the way the season evolved. We have retained 13 players now, including Kamlesh Nagarkoti. He was injured and he, unfortunately, couldn’t play for us. He is still recovering, but given the skills and ability he has – we picked him with that intention, and we have retained him again,” said Venky Mysore, KKR CEO and MD.
Here’s the complete list of players retained and released by KKR:
Retained:
Dinesh Karthik (captain), Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna
Released:
Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Tom Curran, Cameron Delport, Javon Searles, Ishank Jaggi, Apoorv Wankhade, Vinay Kumar
