Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2024 Auction Preview: Remaining Slots, Purse Availability, Potential Targets

IPL 2024: The two-time IPL winners Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will head into IPL 2024 bidding war with the maximum slots to be filled.

Homecoming of Gautam Gambhir could prove to be vital for the KKR camp.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024 Auction: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be heading into IPL 2024 Auction in pursuit of major purchases as they have the most number of available slots to be filled. The Shahrukh Khan co-owned side have won the IPL on two previous occasions, in 2012 and 2014, and would be looking to repeat the heroics after their prodigal son captain, Gautam Gambhir, returns to the side as a mentor.

Players retained by KKR: Rinku Singh (55 Lakhs), Varun Chakaravarthy (8 crore), Venkatesh Iyer (8 crore), Nitish Rana (VC) (8 crore), Shreyas Iyer (C) (12.25 crore), Jason Roy (2.8 crore), Sunil Narine (6 crore), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (50 lakh), Suyash Sharma (20 lakh), Anukul Roy (20 lakh), Andre Russell (12 crore), Harshit Rana (20 lakh) and Vaibhav Arora (60 lakh).

Players released by KKR: Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Narayan Jagadeesan, Mandeep Singh, Aarya Desai, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee and Johnson Charles.

KKR walks into this IPL Auction with a purse of 32.7 Crore and 12 slots (4 overseas) to be filled in as they released the most amount of players than any other franchise. Under the mentorship of Gautam Gambhir, the Kolkata-based franchise has gone into this mini auction with an overhaul, given that next year will be the year of mega-auction. These actions will make things more interesting at the auction table as the purse size makes KKR more flexible with their buys and will impose muscle power when any hot free agent comes up, likely being Rachin Ravindra, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc among others.

KKR Potential Targets:

1. Pat Cummins: The former 'Knight' is the most sought-after player for KKR as purchase of Pat Cummins will bring in much more stability to the side, in terms of bowling, batting, and even leadership as he is the current and reigning World Cup winning captain.

2. Rachin Ravindra: Rachin will probably be the player for whom the bid can be the highest, given he's such a player that can act as a final piece of a jigsaw. Rachin provides seamless stability up the order, can prove handy with the ball, and is electric on the field as well. 

3. Travis Head: The Man of the Match in both the World Test Championship final and ODI World Cup final, will be a perfect fit for KKR and a much bigger upgrade over Rahmanullah Gurbaz, because of his ability to play in the Indian conditions and able to bowl the tricky arm ball, and given that KKR will play 7 matches at the Eden Gardens, Head will be a major presence in their bucket list.

4. Mitchell Starc: One department where KKR lacks the most is their foreign pace department and if they end up successfully purchasing Mitchell Starc, it'll be a big boost as their spin department looks great and someone with calibre of Starc in their ranks will make Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) a formidable side.