Kolkata Knight Riders are all set to play under the mentorship of former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir in the 2024 season. He has returned to the franchise after leaving his position at the Lucknow Super Giants, which Justin Langer will take. However, Gambhir’s presence is expected to bring the old energy back to the KKR side after having poor seasons in the past few seasons. Speaking ahead of the 2024 season, KKR all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer has said that he is excited to play under the guidance of Gambhir.
In an interview given to the KKR website, Iyer said, “Gautam sir coming back is going to be a huge plus for KKR. I’m really looking forward to working with him. Whatever conversations I’ve had with him in the past, he has always talked about creating an impact for the team’s goals rather than personal milestones. He is an amazing leader and I’m also excited to see the combination of him and Chandu sir (Chandrakant Pandit). Both are amazing tacticians and have the experience of winning trophies.”
However, Iyer had a century for KKR in the last edition of the IPL but he did not have a good time in the tournament overall. And, he is coming off a full domestic season as well. He scored one century and four fifties and also claimed 8 wickets in the tournament.
“The domestic tournaments help build confidence in executing your best balls under pressure situations. I have got a lot of confidence in my skills and once you’re confident about your skills, then the execution part becomes easy. Whenever the captain would want me to bowl an over or two, I’ll always be there. Shreyas has always had that confidence in me and he trusts that I can get the job done for the team in pressure situations,” Venkatesh Iyer said.
IPL 2024 Auction: KKR’s Buys
KKR bought a total of 10 players in the IPL auction for this season. They spent the most amount of money in the history of the tournament for Mitchell Starc. (Rs 24.75 crore). KS Bharat (Rs. 50 lakh), Chetan Sakariya (Rs. 50 lakh), Mitchell Starc (Rs. 24.75 crore), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Rs. 20 lakh), Ramandeep Singh (Rs. 20 lakh), Sherfane Rutherford (Rs. 1.5 crore), Manish Pandey (Rs. 50 lakh), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (Rs. 2 crore), Gus Atkinson (Rs. 1 crore), Sakib Hussain (Rs. 20 lakh).
