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For the past seven seasons, the IPL franchise from the eastern metropolis boasted of a standout captain in Gautam Gambhir, under whom they won two titles in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
However, as per reports, Gambhir had himself instructed the KKR management ahead of the 2018 auctions to not retain him for this season. In the wake of that, here we list out 5 possible contenders for the vacant captaincy post.
Dinesh Karthik
The 32-year-old wicket-keeper batsman, who played for the Gujarat Lions in the previous edition, was bought by the Knight Riders for a big amount of Rs. 7.4 crore. The Tamil Nadu keeper has been a fairly decent performer for all the IPL franchises that he has played for – be it Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab or Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Apart from his experience of playing for so many franchises, Karthik also has been the captain of the Tamil Nadu Ranji team since the 2009-10 season. Besides, since his international debut which was in 2004, he has played under multiple captains including Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, which is another added benefit for him. Also, he was the vice-captain of the daredevils in IPL 7.
Robin Uthappa
Robin Uthappa might not have much of captaincy experience under his name in the domestic circuit, apart from leading India ‘A’ against Australia ‘A’ four years ago. But his long association with KKR makes him the second most possible candidate for the elite post.
The keeper-batsman has been with the team since 2014 and has also been their most consistent batsman in all these years. Uthappa has scored tons of runs for the franchise. From 58 matches for KKR, the top order batsman has scored 1,806 runs. His close association of four years with former skipper Gautam Gambhir can help him lead the side in his absence.
Piyush Chawla
The leggie, who had a base price of Rs 1 crore, had four teams bidding for him in the recent auctions, but he was eventually bought by CSK for Rs 4.2 crores. However, Chawla’s former franchise used the RTM option to retain him for the upcoming season.
Apart from short captaincy stints more than a decade ago, (captain of U19 team for the tour of Pakistan in 2006, captain of U15 team in the Asia Cup in 2002, etc) the veteran has no captaincy credentials to his name. But his former association with the Knights makes his case for a possible candidate.
In the 2014 IPL Player Auction, KKR used a whopping 4.25 crores to attain Chawla’s services, and over the years, he has rewarded the franchise by putting up laudable performances with his leg-spinners and also a couple of handy lower order contributions with the bat.
Chris Lynn
Chris Lynn has shown in his stints with Queensland and the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League that he can lead a team. The current captain of the Brisbane Heat, Lynn was in remarkable form in BBL 6, in which he was named the player of the tournament for hammering 309 runs at an average of 154.50 and a strike-rate of 177.58 in the five games. He was also named the captain of the Australia ‘A’ team last year.
Apart from the IPL, the big hitter has also played in the Caribbean Premier League and Sri Lankan premier leagues. Lynn was purchased by KKR at the 2014 Player Auction and last year, he scored 295 runs from seven matches at an average of 49.16 and a strike rate of 180.98. His frequent injuries, however, are KKR’s biggest concern ahead of the tournament.
Sunil Narine
This ‘mystery spinner’ from the Caribbean has been a regular member of the franchise since 2012, i.e. the year when KKR won their maiden IPL trophy. In his very first season for the Knight Riders, he terrorised batsmen across all teams, and was named the Player of the Tournament with 24 wickets at a miserly 5.47 runs per over.
Narine was thus retained by the franchise ahead of the 2014 Player Auctions and although he not been too effective as a wicket taking bowler the past three seasons, he has been able to contain runs consistently. If not anybody else, then Narine can be given the duty of being either the captain or vice captain.
