The IPL 2024 is around the corner. On December 19, the auction for the tournament has been wrapped up. That was an excellent auction. Excitements were in every bid. This was also a record-breaking one. with a massive amount of 24.75 crore, Kolkata Knight Riders purchased Australian legend Mitchell Starc. This was the most expensive buy in the history of the tournament. After that, Gautam Gambhir opened up about their auction picks and many other things.
KKR in IPL 2024:
Kolkata Knight Riders made history. After purchasing Mitchell Starc, they registered the most expensive purchase in the history of the tournament. They purchased Australian legendary bowler Mitchell Starc with a whopping amount of 24.75 crores. Ahead of the IPL 2024, KKR purchased some key players. As a wicket-keeper, the bought KS Bharat for 50 Lakh. in the batting squad, they added Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi.
They made a great all-rounder slot. Ramandeep Singh was added to the squad. In the bowling section, they made an explosion. Mitchell Starc was their and the tournament’s expensive buy. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain, Chetan Sakariya, and Harshit Rana were added to the squad.
Gautam Gambhir’s Words:
Before the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders played another masterstroke. They brought back Gautam Gambhir as the mentor of the franchise. After the fantastic auction performance, Gambhir opened up about it. Now, Mitchell Starc is the most talked about topic. On this matter, he said, “He is an X-factor, there is no doubt about that. Someone who can bowl with the new ball, bowl in the death overs, and more importantly, someone who can lead the attack. He is going to be of massive help to our two domestic bowlers because both of them are very talented and you need someone to help them out in the middle and Starc covers those bases. It is not only about his bowling but also about leading the attack and helping all the guys around him. So, somebody will have to pay for it.”
After Mitchell Starc’s inclusion in the squad, the bowling department became more powerful. Along with him, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, and many bowlers are there in the squad. Gambhir talked about this topic. He said, “We have a lot of depth in our bowling line-up. We always wanted to have a stronger bowling attack and now we have the options with Mujeeb (Ur Rahman), Gus (Atkinson), Sunil (Narine), Varun (Chakravarthy), and Mitchell Starc along with two Indian seamers and Chetan Sakariya. Now, we have enough options where we can play different combinations looking at the venue as well. For me, it has always been about having a strong bowling lineup compared to a very strong batting lineup.”
He came back to the franchise after a long time. He got emotional while talking about this homecoming. He said, “For me, KKR is not a team, it is an emotion. The reason is the amount of love that I have received from the people of Kolkata for seven years that I led them and hopefully, I led them with a lot of honesty. Hopefully, we can recreate the same memories that we did in 2012 and 2014. There is no guarantee that we will go out and win but there is one guarantee for sure, that we will fight till the last drop of our blood.”
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