IPL 2022: Kolkata Knight Riders are one of the teams this season which has let their experienced players go. KKR made a decision that the services of veteran wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik and former skipper Eoin Morgan were no longer required. As a result, KKR did not retain any of these two senior players. 


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However, now they have a well-balanced team with senior players Ajinkya Rahane, Sam Billings and young talent Sheldon Jackson. Along with that, KKR made sure they bought some of their old players like Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi and Australia Test captain Pat Cummins. Kolkata made sure their team would end up as well balanced unit with youngsters looking to carry the legacy forward.



Strength: After the IPL 2022 mega auction, KKR announced that Shreyas Iyer will be taking up place of Eoin Morgan as their new skipper. Morgan was named the skipper of KKR half-way through the IPL 2020, he led the Knights to the finals of last season against CSK.


But his side fell short against of an experienced Chennai side. Morgan failed to perform with the bat throughout the season and that's why he remained unsold this season.


Shreyas Iyer guided the Delhi Capitals to their first Playoffs in 2019 and final in 2020 against the Mumbai Indians. His experience and record in the IPL as DC skipper speaks a lot about his captaincy skills, however, Iyer decided to part ways with Delhi Capitals when they made the decision of naming Rishabh Pant as their first-choice captain for IPL 2022.


KKR, on the other hand, wanted a leader who could fill in the shoes of the legendary captains list, and Shreyas Iyer was the perfect catch for Knights as they looked very desperate to buy the right-hander. It is now upto Shreyas Iyer and his captaincy skills which will guide the team up the franchise to new heights.


Weakness: Kolkata Knight Riders have a well-balanced team, although injuries to some key players can leave them helpless. In the past, we havs seen Narine and Russell struggle with injuries, and if they are missing again then it could be a big problem for KKR. Australia white ball skipper Aaron Finch and Test skipper Pat Cummins, both will miss out on the opening 5 matches due to international duty, that is also a big setback. 


IPL 2022 KKR Squad: Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Nabi, Aman Khan.