IPL 2024: Kolkata Knight Riders Retained & Released players

Ahead of the upcoming mini-auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Kolkata Knight Riders have taken some bold decisions and released the likes of Shardul Thakur, Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson among many others. A change in the team dynamics was expected ever since the two-time champions appointed Gautam Gambhir as their mentor for the upcoming season.

Gambhir helped Kolkata win the championship in 2012 and 2014 and has been extremely successful during his time as a mentor of Lucknow Super Giants. He now has a difficult job in hand as KKR are looking to rebuild their squad in order to compete at the elite level once again.

Meanwhile, KKR have a strong core Indian group, which will play a big part in their success in IPL 2024. Shreyas Iyer will be returning as the leader of the pack, while Rinku Singh will have a lot of responsibilities, after his recent heroics. Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer will complete the middle order, which looks absolutely stacked at the moment.

They need some quality pacers in the auction. After releasing the likes of Ferguson and Tim Southee, they have the money to invest in pacers as that’s one area that KKR lacks at the moment. They have top-quality spinners in the form of Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy and thus, pacers are what they lack.

Notably, the IPL auction is slated to take place on November 19 in Dubai.

Retained Players

PlayerRole
Shreyas IyerBatter
Nitish RanaAll-Rounder
Rinku SinghBatter
Venkatesh IyerAll-Rounder
Sunil NarineAll-Rounder
Varun ChakravarthyBowler
Suyash SharmaBowler
Andre RussellAll-Rounder
Jason RoyBatter
Anukul RoyBowler
Vaibhav AroraBowler
Rahmanullah GurbazBatter/WK
Harshit RanaBowler

Released Players

PlayerRole
Tim SoutheeBowler
Lockie FergusonBowler
Litton DasBatter/WK
Kulwant KhejroliyaBowler
Shakib Al HasanAll-Rounder
Umesh YadavBowler
Mandeep SinghBatter
Narayan JagadeesanBatter/WK
David WeiseAll-Rounder
Johnson CharlesBatter/WK
Aarya DesaiBowler
Shardul ThakurAll-Rounder

Purse Remaining

INR 32.7 Crore