Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have named Phil Salt as Jason Roy’s replacement ahead of IPL 2024. The England debutant pulled out of the season due to personal reasons.
This is a big blow to the franchise that relied heavily on him in the new ipl season. Meanwhile, Roy’s replacement Phil Salt scored two consecutive centuries against the West Indies in a T20I series in December last year.
KKR now has two foreign wicketkeeper-batsmen to choose from: Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Salt himself. Salt’s explosive ability with the bat makes him a good replacement for KKR, who have struggled to sort out their opening combination since the last two seasons.
“Kolkata Knight Riders have named Phil Salt as Jason Roy’s replacement after the latter withdrew from the upcoming TATA IPL 2024 due to personal reasons. Having gone unsold at the auction after representing Delhi Capitals last year, this will be Salt’s second season in the IPL.”
“Bought at his reserve price of INR 1.5 crore, the aggressive England batsman scored two consecutive T20I centuries against the West Indies in December last year. His 48-ball century in the 4th T20I in Trinidad is also the fastest for England.” Read the IPL statement.
KKR names Phil Salt as Jason Roy’s replacement for IPL 2024
🚨 NEWS 🚨
KKR name Phil Salt as Jason Roy’s replacement.
Details 🔽 #TATAIPL | @KKRiders
— Indian Premier League (@IPL) March 10, 2024
KKR signed Jason Roy ahead of the IPL 2024 auction. He scored 285 runs in 8 matches last year at an average of 35.63. He scored two fifties in the season and scored the runs he scored at a strike rate of 151.60.
Salt arrives as a very capable replacement in place of his England team-mate. He was bought by Delhi Capitals at his base price of 1.5 crore in IPL 2023. He scored 218 runs at a strike rate of 163.91 last season. However, despite his exploits with the bat, Delhi Capitals released him last season, giving KKR the opportunity to sign him as a replacement.
KKR earlier named Dushmantha Chameera as Gus Atkinson’s replacement after the England pacer withdrew from IPL 2024 as the ECB wants to manage his workload. The England pacer was part of the team that traveled to India for the Test series but did not feature in any of the Test matches. Meanwhile, Chameera has an IPL experience of 12 matches in nine wickets at an economy rate of 8.73. Apart from Chameera, Mitchell Starc is the only foreign frontline quick in the Knight Riders team.
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Talking about Roy, he currently plays for the Quetta Gladiators in the PSL. He has scored 231 runs in seven matches at an average of 33.00 and a strike rate of 149.03. The lack of availability of him is one of the main reasons why he has not sold in the IPL auctions over the years. He also joined KKR as Shakib Al Hasan’s replacement in IPL 2023 as the Bangladesh captain retired due to personal reasons.
KKR team for IPL 2024
Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc , Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Dusmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain.
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