Vinay Kumar On KKR Not Retaining Shubman Gill: Former India bowler and recent Royal Challengers Bengaluru Hall of Famer Vinay Kumar claims that Kolkata Knight Riders’ decision to not retain Shubman Gill in 2024 was a poor one.
With the introduction of two new teams into the IPL in 2022, a mega auction was to be held before the season. Each team could retain a maximum of four players from their previous year’s squad. In 2021, KKR surprisingly made it to the final following a late-season surge. The team’s most impressive player in the second half of the 2021 season was a fresh-faced Venkatesh Iyer, who gave the team great starts as an opener.
With that in the leadership’s mind, the Knight Riders decided to retain an Indian opener in Venkatesh, along with Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Varun Chakravarthy.
With Iyer being retained, there was no place for another Indian opener to be picked. So KKR let a rising star in Shubman Gill go.
Gill was then drafted by the Gujarat Titans before the auction. This might have been one of the best decisions made by the new franchise, as Shubman played a massive role in GT’s successful next two years. Which included a title in their first season in 2022 and a final appearance in 2023.
Shubman Gill is now a major star in the national side across all formats and has been dubbed the “Prince” of Indian cricket.
Vinay Kumar On KKR Not Retaining Shubman Gill
Vinay Kumar, who played 31 ODIs, nine T20Is, and a Test match for India, claimed in a recent conversation with Star Sports that KKR not retaining Gill back in 2022 was a mistake, saying:
“They made a big mistake by not retaining Shubman Gill. He has become a big star in the last three years. The management and the owners should have kept Gill on the team. You need match-winners like him to win titles.”
KKR is doing great enough this season, as they are second on the league table with 10 points in seven matches. As for Shubman Gill, he is now the captain of a struggling GT and is in seventh with eight points in nine matches. On a personal level, he is having a decent IPL 2024 with the bat, scoring 304 runs in nine matches with an average of 38.
Kolkata Knight Riders will face the Punjab Kings in their next match on April 26 in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.
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