IPL 2019: Kolkata Knight Riders' strongest possible playing XI

Kolkata Knight Riders walked into the IPL 2019 Auction with the smallest squad size and ended up the auction with the smallest squad size. The East Indian franchise made as many as eight signings and spent around Rs 16 crores to secure them. Their most expensive buy was the Windies T20I captain Carlos Brathwaite who was finally priced at a whopping five crores.

In 2018, KKR was criticized for its auction strategy. They had purchased too few players for a high cost leaving themselves vulnerable. The Knight Riders were baffling this time also as they went all guns blazing after Brathwaite when they already had Andre Russell. By the end of the auction, the Knight Riders made some smart moves and bought the valuable players as such Joe Denly, Anrich Nortje, and Lockie Ferguson.

After reaching third place in the IPL 2018, there are very few doubts about the capabilities of the Knight Riders. They already had a strong core team and very few weaknesses. After the IPL 2019 auction, this is how the strongest possible XI for KKR shapes up.

#1 Chris Lynn

The Australian big-hitter has made a tremendous impact while batting in the purple jersey. Chris Lynn is known for ‘Lynsane’ hitting and can effortlessly clear any boundary rope in the world. At the top, he is one of the most destructive batsmen in world cricket.

In the 2018 IPL, Lynn curbed his instincts to a limit but ensured that his run-scoring did not take a hit. Teams tried to trouble him by introducing a spinner early but Lynn countered his way around to score 491 runs in 16 matches with a strike rate of 130. The Australian is injury-prone but is a blockbuster batsman to open the innings.