IPL 2019: 3 Players Kolkata Knight Riders should buy in the auction

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after a decent outing in the previous season released eight of their players while retained other 13 ahead of IPL 2019. The two-time winners of the tournament, last season, made wicketkeeper-batsman, Dinesh Karthik, the skipper of the side and he didn’t disappoint both with his bat and as captain. They though lacked depth in the middle-order and good pacers, costing them a chance to win the trophy for the third time.

The Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise would be wanting to get things done in the auction and hence succeed in the event, next year. They have 12 slots free, including seven Indian and five overseas and the remaining salary cap of 15.20 crore for the December 18-scheduled auction. Meanwhile, taking a look at their retained players-list, it’s evident that Kolkata will need a good overseas seamer and a couple of experienced batsmen to do well in IPL 2019.

In this article, we try to find the three players, KKR should pick in the auction:

1. Gautam Gambhir

Former Indian opener who led KKR for seven long years might be back in Purple colours again, next season. The southpaw recently had a scintillating Vijay Hazare Trophy, scoring more than 500 runs in the List A tournament while opening for Delhi. He though didn’t enjoy his time with Delhi Daredevils last year in the IPL. Owing to the team’s horrible performance, Gambhir had to first step down as captain and then sit out even from the XI mid-way through the tournament.

Though, the experienced campaigner despite being in his late 30s’ would be a good pick for KKR in the auction. The Knight Riders could be one of the teams interested in him, not only because he has been part of the team earlier but the top-order batsman can be quite handy with his batting skills and tactics for them.