In a major development, Sri Lankan pacer, Dushmantha Chameera has replaced Gus Atkinson in the Kolkata Knight Riders squad for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.
Kolkata bagged the services of Atkinson for INR 1 crore at the IPL 2024 auction. However, the England seamer won’t be taking part in the tournament as the ECB wants him to manage his workload ahead of a long winter.
The 26-year-old has represented England in 9 ODIs so far, picking 11 wickets at an average of 35.27. He will be replaced by Sri Lankan pacer, Dushmantha Chameera, who last played in the 2022 edition of the IPL.
Chameera had earlier gone unsold at the 2024 auction but will now join KKR for a price of INR 50 lakh. Previously, he has plied his trade for franchises such as Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Lucknow Super Giants.
He was part of the LSG in the 2022 edition of the cash-rich league. Under KL Rahul’s captaincy, he played 12 matches and picked up nine wickets. KKR had an underwhelming season year as he had picked up only six wins in 14 matches and had 12 points under the bag.
They finished at seventh position at the end of the league.
Ahead of a new season, the Kolkata Knight Riders spent a fortune to buy the services of Mitchell Starc at the auction. He is the only front-line quick present in the squad for this year. Lack of support for Mitchell Starc in the pace department could be a concern for them.
Nevertheless, Gautam Gambhir is back in the set-up, donning the role of a mentor for the upcoming season. Skipper Shreyas Iyer will be making a return, while the recent form of Andre Russell does inspire a lot of confidence.
Rinku Singh as a batter has evolved a lot and there is no denying that KKR are looking a much stronger outfit as far as the batting is concerned. It would be interesting if they could turn around their fortunes this season and clinch their third IPL title.
Kolkata Knight Riders Complete Squad IPL 2024
Wicketkeepers: KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (AFG).
Batters: Shreyas Iyer, Jason Roy (ENG), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford (WI), Manish Pandey.
All-rounders: Andre Russell (WI), Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh.
Bowlers: Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine (WI), Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc (AUS), Gus Atkinson (ENG), Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman (AFG).
Read More: IPL 2024 Schedule To Be Released In Two Phases: Reports
