It was disappointing to lose Shubman Gill – KKR head coach Brendon McCullum

Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum reckons it was disappointing to lose Shubman Gill before the IPL 2022 mega auction. Gill was roped in by the Ahmedabad franchise and he has been signed up for INR seven crores. The right-hander had made his IPL debut for Kolkata Knight Riders against Sunrisers Hyderabad back in 2018 season.

After impressing with his performances, Gill got a chance to open for the franchise. The 22-year old has played 58 IPL matches in which he has scored 1417 runs at an impressive average of 31.49.

However, the franchise decided to retain Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy before the IPL auction and thus Gill was available for the two newly added IPL teams – Lucknow Supergiants and Ahmedabad.

In fact, Brendon McCullum had earlier stated that Shubman Gill was part of their leadership and he could be their future captain. However, he was not retained by the franchise.

Brendon McCullum said while talking to KKR social media handle, “You need to plan as you’re going to lose a lot of players. It was disappointing to lose Shubman Gill. But that’s the way life is sometimes and we will be well prepared for the upcoming auction.”

Meanwhile, McCullum added that Sunil Narine and Andre Russell are proven campaigners in the IPL while Iyer did a fine job for the franchise in the second phase of the league. Iyer scored 370 runs in 10 matches for KKR and played a key role in taking the team to the final of the league.

Former New Zealand captain added, “Sunil Narine and Andre Russell have been proven campaigners for a decade. We have all seen what Varun Chakravarthy is capable of in the last two seasons. Venkatesh Iyer was probably the story of the second half of IPL 2021.”

McCullum added that Pat Cummins was a pretty good buy by them in the previous auction. The Australian gun pacer was roped in for a whopping amount of INR 15.50 crores.

“I think Pat Cummins was a pretty good buy. While some would say he did not perform as he should have, I disagree. He was brilliant across disciplines without statistically being a really high achiever. You are prepared to go hard for guys like him.”

IPL 2022 will begin from 27th March while the auction will take place on February 12, 13.