Kolkata Knight Riders:
The Knights had 4 retentions in place. They had a tight budget and went overspent on day 1 of the mega auctions. However they made it up with some smart buying in day 2. The Knights will be under a new skipper this time round.
Squad and Playing XI of Kolkata Knight Riders.
Players Retained for IPL 2022:
Andre Russell (Rs 12 crores).
Varun Chakravarthy (Rs 8 crores).
Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 8 crores).
Sunil Narine (Rs 6 crores).
Players Bought for IPL 2022:
Pat Cummins (Rs 7.25 crore).
Shreyas Iyer (Rs 12.25 crore).
Nitish Rana (Rs 8 crore).
Shivam Mavi (Rs 7.25 crore).
Sheldon Jackson (Rs 60 lakh).
Ajinkya Rahane ( Rs 1 crore).
Rinku Singh ( Rs 20 Lakh).
Anukul Roy ( Rs 20 Lakh).
Rasikh Dar (Rs 20 Lakh).
B Indrajith (Rs 20 Lakh).
Abhijeet Tomar (Rs 40 Lakh).
Pratham Singh (Rs 20 Lakh).
Ashok Sharma (Rs 55 Lakh).
Sam Billings (Rs 2 Crore).
Alex Hales (Rs 1.5 Crore) (Replaced)
*Aaron Finch (Rs 1.5 Crore).
Ramesh Kumar (Rs 20 Lakh).
Mohammad Nabi (Rs 1 Crore).
Umesh Yadav (Rs 2 Crore).
Aman Khan (Rs 2 Lakh.
Probable Playing Xi:
Venkatesh Iyer.
Aaron Finch (✈️).
Nitish Rana.
Shreyas Iyer (C).
Sheldon Jackson (Wk).
Andre Russell(✈️).
Sunil Narine (✈️).
Pat Cummins (✈️).
Shivam Mavi.
Varun Chakravarty.
Umesh Yadav.
Final Verdict: The arrival of Aaron Finch ensures that KKR has got an opener to partner with Venkatesh Iyer at the top. Also the lack of a good wicket keeping option means that the Knights have to play Sam Billings or Sheldon Jackson invariably.