5 cricketers who Kolkata Knight Riders should not retain for the upcoming IPL season

The Kolkata Knight Riders are one of the most successful Indian Premier League teams ever. With two titles to their name, they are one of the most feared oppositions.

They have achieved a lot under Gautam Gambhir's captaincy and the team has had great chemistry over the years with the players sharing a great camaraderie amongst themselves.

However, there will be a lot of new faces in the team next year given the new policy set by the board with regards to player retention. Each side will be able to retain a maximum of five players.

This means that many KKR will have to let go of many familiar faces.

In this article, we take a look at the 5 cricketers who KKR should not retain for the upcoming IPL auction:

#5 Umesh Yadav

The Indian pacer has been in great form in the longer format of the game. He is one of the go-to bowlers for Virat Kohli and picked up wickets at regular intervals during India's recently concluded extended home season.

However, his form in the limited-overs formats has not been great as Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have outperformed him.

He has been a valuable addition to the Kolkata Knight Riders over the past couple of years; however, with the new retention policy, it looks like the team management will have to do away with him given the number of T20 specialists in the side.

#4 Yusuf Pathan

Yusuf Pathan has been an integral cog in Kolkata's batting line-up over the years and has taken them to numerous victories. He was sensational with the bat in the 2016 season scoring 361 runs at an average of 72.20.

However, the explosive Indian all-rounder is not the fearsome beast he once was. He has been extremely inconsistent in his performances and is currently out of favour with the Indian cricket team.

With the likes of Shakib al Hasan and Andre Russell in KKR's line-up, Pathan will most likely be dropped for the upcoming season.

#3 Colin de Grandhomme

The explosive cricketer is currently one of the best all-rounders in the New Zealand side. He has played an integral role in their success over the past couple of years.

He was the replacement for the banned Andre Russell for the Knight Riders in the 2016 auction but failed to live up to expectations.

In the 12 matches he played, he managed only 126 runs at an average of 15.75 and picked up only four wickets with the ball.

With a lot of superstars in KKR's ranks, it is highly unlikely that the team management will continue to persist with the Kiwi all-rounder.

#2 Chris Woakes

A bowling all-rounder, Chris Woakes is an integral part of England's squad who are currently taking part in the Ashes. He has been performing decently well as he picked up four wickets in the second Test.

Unfortunately, England finds themselves 2-0 down in the five-match Test series.

Woakes has been amongst the wickets for England over the past couple of years and has proved to be an extremely useful batsman as well. He was quite successful in his first season with KKR too as he picked up 17 wickets. However, he was quite expensive and gave away runs at 8.77 per over.

With the new retention policy, KKR will most likely have to opt for New Zealand's Trent Boult over Woakes.

#1 Robin Uthappa

One of India's unluckiest ever players, Robin Uthappa would be extremely hard done with the fact that he hardly got a chance to play for the Indian cricket team.

He has a stellar domestic record and has constantly performed well in the Indian Premier League as well. He was in good form last year as well with 388 runs to his name at an average of 29.84.

However, he didn't have a great domestic season prior to the IPL with Karnataka and he switched to Saurashtra this season.

With the likes of Manish Pandey, Chris Lynn, and Gautam Gambhir in the side, KKR will most likely have to let Uthappa go.