Aakash Chopra has questioned the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) auction approach. The former opener stated that while the franchise has bought both Manish Pandey and KS Bharat, they don’t have a spot for either of them in the playing XI. To accommodate either, they’ll have to either force someone out of the spot or make them out of position in IPL 2024.
KKR had bought KS Bharat and Manish Pandey at their base price (₹50 lakh), but according to Chopra, in no way will they be able to play them at their preferred spots.
Talking about the idea behind buying Bharat was to have a backup keeper, but since they don’t have a spot in the top order, he meant to have to sit out for the entire IPL 2024.
“KS Bharat is your keeping backup, although I don’t think they will be able to play him. They will have to get Rahmanullah Gurbaz to open because if he doesn’t play and you get Jason Roy to open, you will have to play a keeper in the middle, and KS Bharat batting at no. 5, 6, or 7 won’t be ideal.” said on his YouTube channel.
Chopra reiterated the same about Pandey, claiming that if we wished to get into the playing XI next season, he’d have to bat out of his spot, and that wouldn’t be ideal for him or KKR.
“Whenever KS Bharat and Manish Pandey play, they will have to bat in the lower-middle order, and that’s not ideal for either of them.
“They will have either Rahmanullah Gurbaz or Jason Roy at the top and then Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, and Rinku Singh, and then a finisher in Andre Russell or Sherfane Rutherford.”
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