Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) parted ways with their veteran pace-bowling all-rounder Andre Russell. 37-year-old Russell is a two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champion and was retained by KKR for Rs 12 crore before the mega auction. As the list of retained and released players were announced, Russell leaving the franchise came as a shock to legendary Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
"I never expected KKR to release Andre Russell. I thought KKR would come in with 45 crores at least. They are set to go into the auction with all of their briefcases. If there is bid on any player, you can look in their direction. 64 crores going into a mini auction. It is not like KKR have let everyone go, they still have a reasonable XI," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Cameron Green in KKR?
After releasing a few players, KKR have the highest purse going into the mini-auction at Rs 64.30 crore. He predicts that KKR will go all out for Australia all-rounder Cameron Green who was not a part of mega auction due to back injury. In addition, Ashwin believes his former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) teammate Matheesha Pathirana be a good addition to their pace attack. They also have an option to roped back in Venkatesh Iyer who had a Rs 23.75 price tag.
"KKR are making a statement that whatever player they want, they just want it at all costs. They will not allow anyone else to get in their way. They will walk away with the players of their choice, and I have a feeling they will go all out for Cameron Green, they will again try and go for Venkatesh Iyer, and I will be interested to see if KKR go for Pathirana," Ashwin predicted.
"KKR anyway have an affinity for mystery, they have backed Chakaravarthy and Narine in the past. Death bowling is difficult in KKR, and if they can find a pacer who can give them 35-40 runs in the death, then they will take that with 6 hands. KKR already have a lot of options for the first six overs. Boss, we are looking at a serious attack here," he added.
List of players released and retained by KKR -
Released players: Andre Russell (Rs 12 crore), Venkatesh Iyer (23.75 crore), Quinton de Kock (3.6 Crore), Moeen Ali (2 crore), Anrich Nortje (6.5 crore), Spencer Johnson (2.80 crore), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (2 crore).
Retained Players: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy.