IPL 2021, KKR Top Players: Top 5 Players To Watch Out For In Kolkata Knight Riders In IPL 14

Kolkata Knight Riders, the two-time IPL champions will go in this year’s tournament with more vigor and style. Let’s take a look at their Top 5 players below.

Image Source: Twitter/@KKRiders

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) became the Champions for the first time in 2012 and the again in 2014. It was under the captaincy of Gautam Gmabhir.  After having some poor seasons early on in the competition’s history, KKR bounced back in 2011 when they qualified for the play-offs for the first time. The following year, in 2012, KKR won their first title.

Today, in this article, we look at the Top 5 players we all should look out for in this year’s IPL.

Eoin Morgan: The England T20I captain and a fiery left-handed batsman deserves the top spot in this list. Morgan is a dependable yet hard-hitting batsman. He has won many games for England. He also has more than 1000 runs in the IPL. Recently, he played his 100^th T20I game, a feat achieved by very less number of players in cricket. So, Morgan is a combination of excellence, experience and power hitting. He will be a huge asset in the KKR batting line-up.

Sunil Narine: He need no introduction at all. A spinner who re-discovered his batting talents and also opened for KKR. Narine has been KKR’s main man since 2012. He was an important part of the 2012 and 2014 IPL winning teams for KKR. Narine is a magician with the ball in his hand. Batsmen are confused whether to play the ball or leave it alone as one can never predict if the ball is coming in or its going out when Narine is bowling. He has 127 wickets in 120 IPL games.

Shubman Gill: This 21-year old is already a star in IPL. He is the new familiar face in the Indian cricket’s batting line-up. Gill’s record as a young player and even in the U-19 circuit was excellent. He played in the 2018 U-19 Cricket World Cup at an average of 104.5. Gill can play in the middle order as well as he can open the innings just like he did for India down under. He can very well improve as a batsman, but going by the start he has got, there’s only one way now for Gill and that is going ahead.

Shakib al-Hasan: The only Bangladesh player to play in the KKR squad is Shakib. Over the years, he has been a consistent performer. Shakib debuted for Bangladesh back in 2006. Since then, the all-rounder has taken his own and his country to a new height. Shakib has taken 59 wickets and also scored at a rate of 126.66 in IPL cricket. He is one player who can be an asset to Kolkata Knight Riders. The 33-year old still has it in himself to rock at the biggest stage.

Andre Russell: Last, but not the least. This big West Indies all-rounder can hit a six on any stadium in the world. He has played in the IPL since 2012. He has won many matches for KKR with the bat. If he is in full flow, no bowler in the world is safe. Russell, a Jamaican has been Kolkata’s favorite boy since a few years now. His strike rate is in excess of 180 while he has also picked up 61 wickets in IPL.

So, the main players in KKR are mostly overseas, but these are predictions and anything can happen in cricket. We never know, some young talented cricketer can be a star here as well.

KKR Full Squad: Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy and Tim Seifert, Shakib-al-Hasan, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Venkatesh Iyer, Sheldon Jackson and Vaibhav Arora.

IPL begins from April 9 2021. Follow ABP News’ Sports for all the updates.