Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) last won an Indian Premier League (IPL) title in 2014. For the past 8 years, the Kolkata-based side has failed to lay its hands on the silverware and that is something that they would be looking to change.
After a below-par performance in IPL 2022 under new skipper Shreyas Iyer, KKR would be hoping to keep things behind them and focus on their new campaign. After former Head Coach Brendon McCullum stepped down from the role as he donned the role of the Test Coach of England, KKR appointed veteran Indian Domestic Coach, Chandrakant Pandit.
The two-time IPL winners have also made some stellar trades like bringing in Shardul Thakur from Delhi Capitals (DC) and bringing in Lockie Ferguson and Rahmanullah Gurbaz from Gujarat Titans (GT).
However, a team in IPL performs well only when their Indian personnel is at their best. In this article, we take a look at 3 young players of KKR who could have a stellar season:
1. Anukul Roy
Anukul Roy was part of India’s title-winning U-19 side in 2018, which was skippered by Prithvi Shaw. Roy was roped in by KKR in the IPL 2022 mega auctions and played 2 matches in 2022. Anukul Roy is one of the most exciting and valuable all-rounders and can definitely be a good backup option for Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
He has previously been a part of Mumbai Indians (MI) and has played 1 IPL game for them.
2. Vaibhav Arora
Vaibhav Arora played 5 games for Punjab Kings (PBKS) in IPL 2022 and bagged 3 wickets. The cricketer from Ambala is one of the key players to watch out for in the KKR team and he would be hoping to have a stellar IPL 2023 season and come in the radar of the national team selectors.
The cricketer from Ambala has so far played 16 first-class matches and has notched up 55 wickets which includes 3 five-wicket hauls. With senior bowlers like Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee and Umesh Yadav in the bowling ranks of KKR, Vaibhav Arora can grow as a bowler in KKR.
3. Suyash Sharma
One of the notable buys of KKR in the IPL 2023 auctions was mystery spinner Suyash Sharma, for his base price of Rs. 20 lakhs. KKR CEO Venky Mysore lavished praise on the spinner and he said that he was ‘surprised’ to see Sharma being bought at his base price.
With KKR traditionally having some good mystery spinners like Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma could emerge out as a lethal spinner for Shreyas Iyer’s KKR in IPL 2023.
Also read: IPL 2023: 3 Reasons Why David Warner Is Frontrunner To Be Delhi Capital’s Captain
