No regrets, took right decision not to retain players: Mysore
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO and Managing Director Venky Mysore on Sunday said that his team is not averse to losing players who are now performing well for other franchises and based on the “available information”. decided on. The Indian opener was roped in by Gujarat Titans after KKR did not retain Shubman Gill and he played a key role in helping the team win the title on debut last season.
“Actually, we feel happy when we see that the players we have groomed are doing well for other franchises – Shubman Gill is an example,” Mysore told reporters on the sidelines of a night golf tournament here. He was among the top five batsmen in the last season with 483 runs. This season too, the young batsman has scored 333 runs in eight innings at an average of 41.62 and is second only to Faf Duplesey in the list of highest run-scorers. Apart from Gill, Kuldeep Yadav (Delhi Capitals), Piyush Chawla (Mumbai Indians) and Ajinkya Rahane (Chennai Super Kings) are also doing well for their franchises.
Last season, KKR gave Rahane limited chances but under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he performed brilliantly in the current season and returned to the Test team after 15 months. Mysore said, “It is always difficult to lose such players. Yesterday I was telling Gill (49) that I was enjoying your batting but I was hoping that you don’t let the game slip away from us. Score some runs but let us win.” Gill’s 49-run knock helped Gujarat Titans seal a seven-wicket win on Saturday as the defending champions moved to the top of the points table.
Blaming IPL rules for losing players, he said, “You all know there are limits, the rules made by the IPL and the BCCI. We were allowed to keep only four players in the 2022 auction. There is always debate about this. We always want to keep eight to nine players, out of which we have to choose four. KKR retained Andre Russell, Varun Chakraborty, Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine before the 2022 auction. Mysore said, “Iyer, Varun took us to the finals in 2021. Russell is probably the best T20 all-rounder.
I need not say much about Narayan. These decisions are difficult and during the process you let some players go. The famous Krishna (bought by Rajasthan Royals for 10 crores) are some of the names that fetched huge sums in the auction.” After six defeats in nine matches, KKR need to win their remaining five matches to keep play-off hopes alive.
The team’s assistant coach James Foster said that they are working hard and are not far away from achieving success. Returning from injury, Shardul Thakur did not bowl against Gujarat Titans. On his fitness, Foster said, “He made a comeback after a minor hamstring injury. He is very close (to bowl) from a fitness point of view.
