Kolkata Knight Riders Best Possible Playing 11 for IPL 2022: Focus on limited wicketkeeper options

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Bengaluru, February 17: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) did well to buy a new captain and buy back a few former players at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction, but wicketkeeper position may be a little light.

The Knights retained a quartet of Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy ahead of the IPL Auction, where they needed to add a skipper and good batters along with a few wicketkeeping options.

And they were successful only partially as they landed their captain and added a few more batting options, but in the wicketkeeping position, they didn't buy any big name.

Although they bought Sam Billings, the England wicketkeeper-batter won't be the first choice of the four overseas players. They also added Sheldon Jackson and Baba Indrajith for the role, but the duo won't be a first choice pick in any other team.

KKR stacked their bowling options with Indians premium spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal along with New Zealand pace spearhead Trent Boult, Indian pacers Prasidh Krishna and Navdeep Saini.

As batting openers options, KKR has Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane and Nitish Rana, while Sunil Narine, uncapped recruits Pratham Singh and Abhijeet Tomar also could be used in the playing 11.

The middle-order will be led by skipper Shreyas Iyer, followed by all-round options like Russell, Mohammed Nabi, Pat Cummins, Anukul Roy and one of the wicketkeepers. Unlike most other franchises, KKR have a lot of finishers in their side.

The bowling department seems strong with the likes of Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav and more pace options joining mystery spinners Chakravarthy and Narine.

Now, with the squad assembled, let's take a look at the best possible playing 11 for Kolkata Knight Riders if everyone is fit and available.

KKR Squad for IPL 2022

Batters: Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Alex Hales, Rinku Singh, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Abhijit Tomar

Wicketkeepers: Sheldon Jackson, Sam Billings, Baba Indrajith

All-rounders: Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Anukul Roy, Aman Khan

Fast Bowlers: Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Rasikh Dar, Ashok Sharma

Spinners: Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy

KKR Best Possible Playing 11

1. Venkatesh Iyer

2. Ajinkya Rahane

3. Nitish Rana

4. Shreyas Iyer

5. Andre Russell

6. Sheldon Jackson

7. Sunil Narine

8. Pat Cummins

9. Shivam Mavi

10. Tim Southee

11. Varun Chakravarthy