Kolkata Knight Riders’ mystery spinner Suyash Sharma has been retained ahead of the IPL 2024 auction. The franchise has strengthened its bowling attack with the addition of Mitchell Starc and Mujeeb Ur Rahman to its ranks.
However, Suyash, an Indian spinner, will continue to be an important cog in KKR’s bowling line-up. KKR’s pre-season camp ahead of IPL 2024 begins on March 15.
That will make the Indian players, including captain Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer and Suyash himself, hit the ground running.
Cricket further reported that a group of KKR players have already started training with KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, who has set up a training camp at the KKR Academy in Mumbai.
The players currently training there are Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Sakib Hussain and Ramandeep Singh.
Meanwhile, Suyash Sharma in a recent talk show revealed the batsman who has found it toughest to bowl in recent times. He named former KKR batsman Shubman Gill as the toughest batsman he has bowled against.
Interestingly, Gill played in KKR colors from 2018 to 2021 in the IPL and scored over 1000 runs for the franchise. He played an important role in KKR reaching the final of IPL 2021 but losing to CSK.
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Suyash Sharma makes an interesting revelation
KKR young sensation Suyash Sharma explains how Shubman Gill was the toughest batsman to face🔥😳 pic.twitter.com/ivywo4182P
– Amaan🏏📈 (@devilcricket) February 29, 2024
Talking about impact, Suyash Sharma himself made a huge impact on the franchise in his first season. Kolkata signed him for 20 lakhs and he made an instant impact by picking three wickets in his first game against RCB.
He took 10 wickets in 11 games last season and will go into this season with all his experience playing domestic cricket over the last year.
Suyhas was primarily used as an impact player last season. He bowled crucial overs in the middle and also at the end. It will be interesting to see if management uses him in the same way this year as well.
Shreyas Iyer will return as KKR captain after sitting out last season due to a shoulder injury. He was recently removed from the BCCI’s list of centrally contracted players due to his discontent with playing domestic cricket.
He played the first two Test matches against England and was then dropped from the Test side. He then complained about the recurrence of his lower back problems which led to him missing the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda. He will now feature for the semi-final against Tamil Nadu on March 2.
KKR has a good domestic batting core with Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana and Ramandeep Singh. They also have a good bowling core of Suyash, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy and Harshit Rana. KKR brought in Dusmantha Chameera as a replacement for Gus Atkinson, who opted out for the season.
KKR play three matches in the first leg of IPL 2024. They begin their campaign against SRH in Kolkata on March 23. They will then play RCB and DC on March 29 and April 3 respectively in Bengaluru and Vizag.
KKR squad for IPL 2024: Shreyas Iyer (C), Andre Russell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Chetan Sakariya, Dushmantha Chameera, Harshit Rana, Jason Roy, KS Bharat, Manish Pandey, Mitchell Starc, Mujeeb Rahman, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh , Sakib Hussain, Sherfane Rutherford, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer.
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