Nitish Rana missed the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) due to his injury on the hand which he picked in the opening game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the home ground Eden Garden, hopes to carry his stay in the franchise for the new season.
The defending champions for the 18th season of the tournament have a tough task on their hand regarding the list of players to be retained, having dominated the last tournament and winning it.
The rules suggest that the former captain of the franchise, Nitish Rana, can retain six players, whether in the retention list of two INR 18 crores and 14 crores and one for INR 11 crore or by using the Right to Match (RTM) card.
There is no limitation on the number of Indian or overseas players, but understandably, the purple franchise will mostly look at their captain, Shreyas Iyer, to get retained. The two West Indies all-rounders, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, have contributed so much to the team over the years.
Nitish Rana yet to get a phone call from the KKR franchise
The middle-order batter of the side, Rinku Singh, on whom the team has invested a lot, is another option for retention. In the bowling department, they have the mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy, who was the second-leading run-getter of the last season and got his way back in the Indian team.
Also Read: Najmul Hossain Shanto Not Bothered With Expressive Mayank Yadav? Bangladesh Captain Reveals
If they want to have someone young and exciting in the pace bowling attack, then Harshit Rana is a very good option, as he was also the highest wicket-taker of the IPL 2024 season. He has also been picked in the Indian squad for the last two series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Nitish Rana has smashed 4520 runs in 184 T20s at an average of under 30 and a strike rate of over 135, shouldering on one century and 29 half-centuries with a best score of 107. When it comes to the IPL, the left-handed batter has smashed 2636 runs in 107 matches at an average of 28.65 and a strike rate of 135, with the help of 18 half-centuries with a best score of 87.
Last season, he could feature in only two games, scoring 42 runs at a strike rate of over 120. In 2023, when Iyer wasn’t fit enough to play the league, he was the leader of the pack and led them brilliantly with his 413-run season at an average of over 31 and a strike rate of more than 140, featuring three half-centuries with a best score of 75.
Nitish Rana has been in the KKR set-up since 2018 and in a recent interview, told the Times of India that even though he would want to get retained by the franchise, he is yet to receive any official update from the team.
“I have been serving KKR for the past seven years. It’s not in my hands if I will be retained, it’s up to KKR management to decide.” The 30-year-old expressed in an interview.
Since the time he joined the franchise, Nitish Rana has yet to go through an edition of the tournament where he has collected anything below the 300 mark. The lowest of them came in 2018 when he gathered 304 runs in the 2018 season.
“I haven’t received any calls yet. I have scored runs for KKR every year, and if they consider me an asset, they will retain me. I want to play for KKR.” The veteran concluded that the deadline for the retention of the franchises stands on October 31.