"As far as playing XI is concerned, KKR have done well in the trading window" - Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan believes the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have assembled a decent playing XI through their trades ahead of the IPL 2023 auction.

The Kolkata-based franchise retained just 11 players from their IPL 2022 squad. They traded in both Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Lockie Ferguson from the Gujarat Titans (GT) and Shardul Thakur from the Delhi Capitals (DC) for a total sum of ₹21.25 crore.

During an interaction on the Star Sports show 'Game Plan', Pathan was quite pleased with KKR's trades. Regarding Ferguson and Thakur, he said:

"As far as playing XI is concerned, KKR have done well in the trading window because they got Lockie Ferguson's pace as well as Shardul Thakur's all-round ability. He can even bat at No. 7, which I think is slightly higher, but if the pitch is flat, you can use him at No. 7 and get that bowling very strong."

The former Indian all-rounder added that Gurbaz will lend much-needed explosiveness at the top of the order to Shreyas Iyer's side, elaborating:

"You have Gurbaz as well now because Gurbaz is the kind of cricketer who can actually just get going from the word go. So they did pretty well as far as the playing XI is concerned.

The Titans picked Gurbaz as a replacement for Jason Roy for IPL 2022. However, the big-hitting Afghanistan opener did not get to play a game in Hardik Pandya's side's title-winning run.

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"They have only around 7 crores left" - Irfan Pathan on KKR's likely auction strategy

The Kolkata Knight Riders have the least remaining purse among all franchises. [P/C: iplt20.com]

However, Pathan feels KKR will have an uphill task at the auction, observing:

"They have now only around seven crores left and they have nearly 11 slots to fill. They have 14 slots already filled with this whole trading window and last year's team."

The cricketer-turned-commentator reckons the two-time champions might have to make do with quality domestic players, reasoning:

"So they might not get top-quality all-rounders or top-quality international cricketers which are available in the auction, they might get one or two because the money they have is not too less, but they might have to go for quality domestic players."

The Kolkata Knight Riders are unlikely to be in a position to acquire big-ticket all-rounders like Ben Stokes, Sam Curran and Cameron Green. Although they seem to have a decent playing XI, they will need backups to cover for any exigencies during the tournament.