Kolkata Knight Riders Retained and Released Players List 2022: KKR retain Russell, Narine, Iyer & Chakravarthy

Bengaluru, Nov. 30: The 2022 season of the Indian Premier League will see an array of changes, starting with the mega auction and the addition of two new teams. The IPL will now be a ten team affair with the addition of the Ahmedabad and Lucknow franchise.

For the upcoming edition, teams can retain a maximum of four players, while the rest will go under the hammer. The deadline for teams to turn in their retention list was on Tuesday, and Kolkata Knight Riders named four players to be retained for the upcoming edition.

While the Knights let go off both former skipper Dinesh Karthik and current skipper Eoin Morgan, the former champions retained two foreign players and two Indian players.

The Knight Riders, who pulled off a dream comeback in the previous edition and missed out on their third title, losing to Chennai Super Kings in the final, retained seasoned Windies campaigners Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, along with Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer.

Here's why the Kolkata outfit, the runners-up of the previous edition, chose to retain the four, and let a few others go. They have Rs 48 crores left in their purse for the mega auction.

Varun Chakravarthy (Rs. 8 crores): The right-arm spinner was the Knights highest wicket-taker. Chakravarthy bowled at an economy of 6.58 and picked up 18 wickets for the Kolkata team in the previous edition of the IPL. Chakravarthy has enjoyed two back-to-back successful seasons for the Knight Riders and furthermore, with the tournament set to return to the country, where spinners enjoy a good hunting ground, there's no point in elaborating the depth and value he brings to the squad.

Andre Russell (Rs. 12 crores): The West Indies player is one of the most dangerous all rounders and a destructive T20 player. Had the player gone under the hammer, the Windies cricketer would have been a hot pick. Russell has turned it around for the Knight Riders on several occasions with both bat and ball and having him in the line-up always puts the opposition on their toes. In the previous edition Russell picked up 11 wickets for KKR, which included a 5-wicket and smashed 188 runs in 10 innings.

Sunil Narine (Rs. 6 crores): The Knights have retained two lethal West Indies player. A lethal spinner who has over the years emerged as a powerful batsman has been crucial in the Kolkata line-up and his retention does not come as a suprise. In the previous edition, Narine finished behind Chakravarthy in the wicket-takers list for the Knights. The West Indies all rounder picked up 16 wickets from 14 games.

Venkatesh Iyer (Rs. 8 crores): In a season, where the Knights pulled off a dream turnaround, Iyer was a key cog in the wheel, as he broke into the scene with both bat and ball. In the previous edition of the IPL, Iyer scored a whopping 370 runs and also picked up three wickets. Iyer's impressive show earned him a national call-up. The all-rounder who is seen as a replacement for Hardik Pandya in the Indian line-up, would have been one of the most-seeked after players had he gone under the hammer. Retaining the youngster, will see Iyer add a lot of value to the squad with both bat and ball.

Who all KKR released:

Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Tim Seifert, Kuldeep Yadav, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Gajendra Singh, Ben Cutting, Pawan Negi, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Rahul Tripathi