KKR replace Gus Atkinson with Dushmantha Chameera for IPL 2024
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have roped in Sri Lankan speedster Dushmantha Chameera as a replacement for England pacer Gus Atkinson for the IPL 2024 season.
The official reason for Atkinson's withdrawal from the tournament hasn't been made public yet. However, the Knight Riders have secured the signing of Chameera for a base price of INR 50 Lakh as per the media release on IPL's official X (formerly Twitter) account.
Gus Atkinson is the second England pacer to miss out on the IPL 2024 season. Mark Wood will also not feature in the upcoming season of the showpiece event and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have replaced him with West Indies' sensation Shamar Joseph.
Dushmantha Chameera had worked with Gautam Gambhir earlier at LSG
KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir was a part of the LSG think tank when Dushmantha Chameera played his only IPL season a couple of years ago. Despite being in the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore squads in the past, Chameera got his break at LSG and was impressive in IPL 2022.
In 12 matches, he picked up nine wickets at an economy rate of 8.73. His raw pace and ability to strike with the new ball might have made him an ideal choice for KKR as Atkinson's replacement. If he can remain injury-free, Chameera could be quite a smart pick.
Gambhir might well have had a say in it as he looks to take the Knight Riders back to their glory days, this time as a mentor. KKR finished seventh in the IPL 2023 season with six wins. With big names like Shreyas Iyer like to be back, the Knight Riders will hope to make it to the IPL 2024 playoffs and beyond.
KKR's updated squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Sakib Hussain & Dushmantha Chameera.