(Cricket news) After having to settle for 2nd place last season, Kolkata Knight riders retained Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell before the auction. After the retention, they were in a dire need for a captain and they found the perfect candidate in Shreyas Iyer. In the first slot itself KKR splashed Rs 12.25 Cr. on the dynamic batter.

As a batter, Iyer has been in great touch since returning from his injury. He scored a ton and a fifty on his Test debut and has just had a record breaking T20I series against Sri Lanka. He will bat at number 3 to anchor the innings as he has done for Delhi Capitals over the years. Despite his heroics against Sri Lanka, Iyer is yet to confirm his place in the playing XI for India. A good IPL with the willow will help him break into the side.

Shreyas Iyer is an experienced IPL captain who knows his trade very well. He has the advantage that KKR has 9 players who were a part of the team last season which means that if gets support from those players his job becomes very easy. It is safe to say that KKR didn't have the best of auctions as they ended up spending too much money on a very limited number of players. The team has potential with a few interesting uncapped players.

Iyer will have a few tough calls to make like Venkatesh Iyer's batting position and which four foreign players to play. One thing is very clear that Iyer will have to lead from the front just like Gautam Gambhir did when he was the captain. The KKR management has always been described as a good environment to play in and the two trophies go on to prove that. 

Kolkata Knight Riders squad:

Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Chamika Karunaratne, Baba Indrajith, Ashok Sharma, Pratham Singh, Abhijeet Tomar, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammed Nabi, Aman Khan, Umesh Yadav.

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