Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) continue to splash cash in the trading window getting their third signing in the form of Indian pace-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur ahead of the announcement of list of retained players for the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In an all-cash deal, Delhi Capitals (DC) have traded Shardul to KKR, freeing up their purse by INR 10.75 crore, as reported by ESPNCricinfo. DC had splurged a huge sum on Shardul at the mega auction, following his performances in the Indian T20 League for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the previous few editions. However, his low returns with both bat and ball and economy of 9.79, taking 15 wickets in 14 matches, in the whole season wasn’t found attractive by the DC owners to retain him.
The report added that CSK (Shardul’s previous franchise), Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings had offered to acquire the pace-bowling all-rounder’s services but the Capitals chose to go ahead with KKR’s deal.
Kolkata Knight Riders are forming an excellent bowling attack even before the auction with the likes of Umesh Yadav, Shardul, Lockie Ferguson, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in the mix. The Knight Riders have been the most active team trading one player after the other.
After getting back Ferguson and trading explosive Afghanistan wicket-keeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz from the 2022 champions Gujarat Titans, Shardul is their third major trade before the deadline of the release of retention list. Since KKR have traded in all three players on cash deals, the franchise is expected to throw some surprises as far as the names of players released by them are concerned. Ferguson (10 crore) and Shardul (10.75 crore) are big purchases and KKR will need to free up some money for the auction as they only had INR 45 Lakh at the end of the auction in 2022.
All franchises are set to receive an extra amount of INR 5 crore before the player auction.
