Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum has said that the team is very lucky to retain Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy for the next cycle of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
KKR had retained Narine and Russell ahead of the 2018 mega auction as well while Chakravarthy and Iyer have been retained for their impressive performances in the last two seasons and second half of IPL 2021 respectively.
“Our last season was a magnificent one, and it made the decision to choose difficult, the skills sets that the four of them have are not available in any kind of auction. We feel very lucky to have secured these guys. Amongst them, prodigious talent is something one cannot ignore, Venkatesh Iyer is an all-rounder, Varun offers you something that no one else really possesses, then we have got a long-term relationship with Sunil and Andre,” said McCullum in a release.
“The loyalty and the continued belief in players who have done it for us before is something we are really proud of as a franchise. The good thing is we have seen the most successful teams in IPL history, have had consistency in selection and players, over the years it’s the pick of the same players that filters throughout the line-up. We have got a great mix of new players and long-term franchise players and I think it’s a nice balance,” added McCullum, who has been the head coach at the franchise since the 2020 season.
Kolkata Knight Riders had finished as the runners-up in the recently concluded IPL 2021 and they have also not retained their skipper Eoin Morgan and former captain Dinesh Karthik for the next cycle.
KKR are also the two-time champions (2012, 2014) where Sunil Narine and Andre Russell played a crucial roles.
