KKR released players 2021: Have Kolkata Knight Riders retained Dinesh Karthik for IPL 2021?

KKR released players 2021: Kolkata Knight Riders have released only six players ahead of IPL 2021 auction next month.

Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders have refrained themselves from making innumerable changes to their team ahead of IPL 2021 auction next month.

Despite a shift in captaincy from Dinesh Karthik to Eoin Morgan midway through the season, Knight Riders failed to qualify for the playoffs on the back of seven wins and losses each in their 14 matches last season.

In the absence of an originally scheduled mega auction, Knight Riders have hinted at backing their players to the extent that they have retained as many as 18 of them for the 14th season of the biggest T20 league in the world.

KKR retained players for IPL 2021

Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Ali Khan, Tim Seifert.

KKR released players 2021

In addition to England batsman Tom Banton, Knight Riders have also released five other players namely Chris Green, Harry Gurney, Siddesh Lad, Nikhil Naik and M. Siddarth.

While Gurney was ruled out of IPL 2020 due to an injury, the likes of Green and Naik played a solitary match each in the 13th season. Talking about Lad and Siddarth, the two domestic Indian batsmen didn’t get to play a game and will walk into the auction to allure a new franchise.

As mentioned above, KKR have also retained the likes of Ali Khan and Tim Seifert. After an injury to Gurney, KKR had roped in Ali Khan making him the first player from USA to get an IPL contract.

Having said that, Ali Khan himself got injured without playing a match last season. It was then that New Zealand wicket-keeper batsman Seifert had been called upon but wasn’t handed a match.