IPL 2022: COC presents possible playing XI for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Shreyas Iyer will captain KKR in IPL 2022.

The IPL 2022 will be one of the most exciting seasons of the most popular and rich T20 league in the world, as it will feature two new teams in Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), making it a 10-team event.

The tournament is slated to begin on March 26 and the final will be played on May 29. The entire league stage of the IPL 2022 will be played in Maharashtra with three venues in Mumbai and one in Pune hosting all the 70 games in between them.

The Wankhede Stadium, Brabourne Stadium, the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, and the MCA Stadium in Pune will be the arenas where the 10 teams will clash. The teams will be divided into groups of five each.

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Meanwhile, the IPL 2022 auction saw all the ten franchises bidding big and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were also not behind as they brought some big-name players. Their biggest buy was Shreyas Iyer for INR 12.25 crores and he was also handed the captaincy of the franchise for the upcoming season.

Considering this, here is the COC’s possible playing XI for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2022

KKR had already retained Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, and Varun Chakravarthy before the auction. Apart from Shreyas Iyer, who has been named the franchise captain for the upcoming season, KKR bought back Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, and Rinku Singh who were previously part of the squad.  

Some major new additions to the franchise were Mohammad Nabi, Sam Billings, Umesh Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane, and Alex Hales.

Therefore KKR has the option of opening with Venkatesh Iyer and either Alex Hales or Ajinkya Rahane partnering him at the top. Hales is coming off a decent PSL 2022, while Rahane has been trying to find form in domestic cricket.

Nitish Rana will slot in the middle order with Shreyas Iyer at 3 and Sheldon Jackson, possibly keeping wickets, at 5. KKR can also have Rana opening the innings with Sam Billings coming at no.4 or 5 and keeping wickets.  

Then Andre Russell and Sunil Narine may be slotted in and KKR will hope for much better performances from these two stalwarts of the IPL and KKR franchise. The past 2-3 seasons have been not so great considering the talent and reputation they both carry.

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But both of them had a brilliant outing in the BPL 2022 and KKR will hope they continue the form here.

Pat Cummins will continue to lead the bowling department with Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Rasik Salam, and others for the company. Varun Chakravarthy will be expected to show his magic with the ball once again, as he was impressive in IPL 2020 and 2021 editions.

COC presents possible playing XI for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR):

Alex Hales, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (C), Nitish Rana, Sheldon Jackson (WK), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy