3 Players KKR should axe ahead of IPL 2020

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had a rather forgettable season in the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise, captained by Dinesh Karthik, started with four victories in the first five games and looked amongst the favourites to qualify for the playoffs.

Unfortunately, the Men in Gold and Purple lost their way in the middle and slumped to six defeats in succession. Their last round-robin match against Mumbai Indians (MI) was a must-win affair and KKR ended up losing to bow out of the tournament.

Throughout the IPL, only Andre Russell delivered for them consistently and it was the bowling unit that floundered frantically. Ahead of the next season, the Kolkata-team would be looking to make some changes, which may include releasing a few players.

Here are three players KKR might axe ahead of IPL 2020

1. Carlos Brathwaite

In the previous auction, the Knight Riders shelled out a massive five crores for Carlos Brathwaite. The humongous amount raised a lot of eyebrows since KKR already had a genuine all-rounder in Andre Russell, who was expected to be first-choice above Carlos.

In the end, the hulk-like Russell ended up playing all the matches even as Brathwaite got opportunities in only a couple of encounters. In those matches, he went wicketless and couldn’t make an impact with the bat as well. Carlos made his debut in the IPL after his 2016 World T20 heroics.

However, he has never been a regular fixture in the T20 tournament, having played only 16 matches in which he scored 181 runs and picked up 13 wickets. KKR can release him and instead rope in someone, who adds to their strength in bowling.