Kolkata Knight Riders Team Name List 2023: KKR Captain, Retained and Released Players List

Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Team Name List 2023: KKR Captain, KKR Retained and Released Players List

Kolkata Knight Riders is one of the top three IPL teams that have won the title more than once. Owned by the King Khan of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan, the team has gone through many ups and downs. Especially last season, they failed to perform, leading to a seventh position. But, this season, they are geared up for a comeback and have already given a solid list of names to the BCCI. Let’s check what the team has prepared for their redemption.

KKR Team 2023 Auction Overview

As the IPL 2023 mini-auction took place in Kochi on December 23, the Kolkata Knight Riders ensured they were not playing around. They had a budget of INR 7.05 million and 11 player slots going into this year’s auction (eight Indian and three overseas players). They have significantly changed their teams while still believing in the youthful captain Iyer. Also, Brendon McCullum has been fired as a coach, and Chandrakant Pandit has taken his position.

KKR Team Players List 2023

The KKR squad, two-time champions added some crucial members on their squad in 2023’s IPL, and they are set to restore their former glory this season. The team has released 15 players this year while keeping a total of 14 players, giving us a final list that looks as follows:

Shreyas Iyer (C)
Varun Chakravarthy
Nitish Rana
Anukul Roy
Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Rinku Singh
Venkatesh Iyer
Narayan Jagadeesan
Andre Russell
Vaibhav Arora
Sunil Narine
Suyash Sharma
Shardul Thakur
David Weise
Lockie Ferguson
Kulwant Khejrolia
Umesh Yadav
Mandeep Singh
Tim Southee
Litton Das
Harshit Rana
Shakib Al Hasan

KKR Team Captain 2023

The KKR team captain, Sheyash Iyer, began his IPL career with Delhi Capitals, who signed him for an outrageous 2.6 crores in his first season. In the same IPL 2015 season, he also won the Emerging Players award. Due to leadership concerns, Iyer was forced to leave Delhi Capitals in 2022. The Kolkata Knight Riders team then bought Shreyas Iyer for Rs.12.25 crores at the super auctions, and he was named captain. This year also, Red Chillies and the team are showing immense faith in Iyer and retaining him as the team’s captain.

KKR Team Retained Players 2023

For the 2023 IPL team auction, the Kolkata team chose a different approach. All the players who could not contribute to the combinations that Iyer and management aimed for were cut loose. They invested in more well-known brands while seeing their financial resources shrink. This resulted in many players’ retention, whereas some were traded to other teams. The list of players who are still holding their position in the team are:

Shreyas Iyer
Nitish Rana
Venkatesh Iyer
Andre Russell
Sunil Narine
Umesh Yadav
Tim Southee
Harshit Rana
Varun Chakravarthy
Anukul Roy
Rinku Singh

KKR Team Released Players 2023

This year, the Kolkata Knight Riders have relieved a total of 15 players. Below is a list of all players who will not be playing for Kolkata in 2023.
Aron Finch
Abhijeet Tomar
A. Rahane
Alex Hales
Ashok Sharma
Baba Indrajith
Chamika Karunaratne
Mohammad Nabi
P. Cummins
Pratham Singh
Ramesh Kumar
Rasikh Dar
Sam Billings
Sheldon Jackson
Shivam Mavi

With the list, Kolkata has released itself from the burden of benching talented players during the season. It is clear that they want to put together a small team with maximum strength.