IPL 2019: What the teams are looking for in the auction

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Kolkata Knight Riders is a team that finished 3rd in the last season of the IPL. It has won the tournament twice, in 2012 and 2014. KKR has that tendency of revamping the team completely, every few years. They did it in 2011 when they let go Sourav Ganguly and brought in Gautam Gambhir as the captain.

The same tactic was repeated in the last auction as well as they let go Gambhir and bought Dinesh Karthik as the captain. At the start of the auction, KKR had 3 players, and all 3 were overseas players. KKR had retained Chris Lynn, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. They built the team around these three players and could manage only 17 players in the amount they had.

Kolkata had done exceedingly well in the last season under Karthik

Looking at the roster of KKR, everyone could identify the loop-holes. Even though they had very strong XI players who could win matches quite easily, they clearly lacked the back-ups. The team was short on players and everyone was sure that they will not be able to make it to the playoffs.

However, KKR was quite lucky that injuries did not hurt their fortune, and riding on Dinesh Karthik's excellent captaincy, KKR not only managed to reach the playoffs, but also win the eliminator to finish 3rd overall.

Among the players retained from last year, the batting looks in good shape to take the field next season. The top order consisting of Narine, Lynn, Uthappa, Rana and Karthik, KKR can only dream of a bad day on the field. After this solid top order, Russell will follow. 6 batsmen done, KKR don't have any back-up for these again. So they would like to spend some funds on buying a good opener and a middle order floater.

In the 6 batsmen mentioned above, KKR already has covered their keeper and a quota of 8 overs. This kind of a balance is something that KKR boasted of in the previous season as well. The remaining 5 players include 3 seamers and 2 spinners, which are again already available for selection. Overall, at the auction, KKR can buy 12 players, 7 of them being Indian.

The voids that remained to be filled are the extra opener, middle order floater, an experienced fast bowler, and another spinner, in case Kuldeep doesn't play owing to the world cup. If Kolkata manages to fill these voids in the 15.2 Cr they have to spend, they could make a formidable side for the next IPL.