IPL 2019: KKR seeks fans' suggestions prior to auction; gets enthusiastic response

The auction for the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just a week away and all franchises are taking their last-minute preparations before going ahead to seal the best possible deal. Former champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), co-owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, has taken a unique initiative ahead of the auction by inviting the fans to make suggestions about players that the franchise should tap for the 2019 season starting in March.

The KKR sought the enthusiastic fans’ engagement by posting a tweet seeking their suggestion. The tweet also questions asked in Bengali to relate better with the supporters of the two-time champions and responses came up in huge numbers. While KKR retained national players like Dinesh Karthik who took over the captaincy from Gautam Gambhir last year, Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla, it also kept foreigners like Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, and Sunil Narine. Among the two big players who were released are current and former Australian quicks – Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson, respectively.

Suggestion to bring back Brendon McCullum

The franchise’s fans suggested two names to be included in the squad and they are Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami and veteran South African pacer Dale Steyn. Some other suggested to go for former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum who once played for the same franchise and had slammed a big unbeaten hundred in the tournament’s very first game in 2008. McCullum was also the captain of the KKR in the 2009 season. Other suggestions included Aussie all-rounder Moises Henriques.

The KKR had a torrid beginning to the IPL a decade ago and had all sorts of problems in the first three seasons in which they failed to qualify in the top four. After two years of captaincy by former India captain Sourav Ganguly and one year by McCullum, KKR roped in Gambhir and he gave the side major success by guiding them to title wins on two occasions (2012 and 2014). Last year, Gambhir was replaced by Karthik and he did fairly well to lead the side, which ended up third in the tournament.

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