KKR Auction 2022: Full list of players bought by Kolkata Knight Riders on Day 1 of IPL 2022 Auction
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had a middling outing on Day 1 of the IPL 2022 Auction. They ended up using almost 75 percent of their ₹48 crore-strong purse to sign just five players, leaving just ₹12.65 core to complete their squad on Day 2.
Their first signing was Pat Cummins. The Australian Test captain had listed himself at ₹2 crore. KKR were involved in brief bidding wars with the two new teams - Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants - before bagging him for ₹7.85 crore. This was almost half his value from the 2020 auction when they got him for ₹15.5 crore.
Cummins has 38 wickets from 37 IPL matches at an average of 30.13 and also offers a decent batting option in the lower order. KKR will also consider him among their captaincy options, especially after his brilliant recent Ashes win with Australia.
Their second and inarguably biggest signing of the day was Shreyas Iyer. A middle-order batter and a leader who took Delhi Capitals to the IPL 2020 final, Iyer bagged a whopping ₹12.25 crore - the most expensive of the auction's first phase.
Iyer is likely to be ahead of Cummins in the captaincy pecking order. His stats - 2375 runs from 87 IPL matches at an average of 31.67 and a strike rate of 123.96 - belie his talent and there's a strong chance that he will hit his peak with KKR.
It was all good till here. KKR then almost disappeared from the scene, avoiding bidding for high-profile players and waiting for last year's core group.
Their next three signings were Nitish Rana for ₹8 crore, Shivam Mavi for ₹7.25 crore and Sheldon Jackson for ₹ 60lakh. Both Rana (383 runs from 17 games) and Mavi (11 wickets from nine games) were among their best performers last season, but they ended up burning a lot of their budget for the duo.
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Jackson was their last buy of the day and it seemed like a desperate decision after they failed to sign any wicketkeepers. They bid quite aggressively for West Indies' Nicholas Pooran - as many as ₹10.5 crore - but lost out to SunRisers Hyderabad. Jackson has been part of KKR's set-up for a long, long time without much game time. The strong domestic performer might finally get some time under the sun this season.
KKR players list after Day 1 of IPL 2022 Auction
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Shreyas Iyer - ₹12.25 crore
Andre Russell - ₹12 crore
Nitish Rana - ₹8 crore
Venkatesh Iyer - ₹8 crore
Varun Chakravarthy - ₹8 crore
Nitish Rana - ₹8 crore
Pat Cummins - ₹7.25 crore
Shivam Mavi - ₹7.25 crore
Sunil Narine - ₹6 crore