3 Players KKR likely to release ahead of IPL 2023

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had a good start in the Indian Premier League 2022 with three wins in the first four league matches. However, they soon lost the plot and sustained five losses on the trot on the back of average performances from both departments of the game. Then the second half witnessed them being inconsistent in terms of every alternate game and could secure only six wins in 14 league matches. As a result, they could not qualify for the playoffs.

Throughout the season, Knight Riders didn’t have a stable opening pair, with most of them failing to provide good starts to the team. The death bowling concerns cost heavily for the two-time champions, as they could not put a brake on the opposition in the back-end of the innings. Going forward, the team management is expected to release some players, based on their team’s combination and form of the players in the latter half of the season.

3 Players KKR likely to release ahead of IPL 2023:

1. Aaron Finch

The Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch became the first player to play for record number of nine franchises in the IPL history. This certainly can be accounted for his lack of enough runs for each team, which he has represented in the tournament. Ahead of the 2022 season, Finch replaced Alex Hales in the KKR squad for his base price of 1.5 crore.

In his first innings of this season, he returned with a score of seven. But, the 35-year batter scored 58 off 28 in the following game against Rajasthan Royals (RR) looking at the best of his abilities. However, his next three scores were read as 3,0, and 14.

The lack of contribution at the opening slot was surely hurting the team, as they dropped Finch in the crucial stages of the tournament. He did not play the last three league matches and is likely to be released by the franchise ahead of the next IPL season.