Blackcaps legend Brendon McCullum is very excited about the roster his team have put together for the upcoming IPL season.
The Kolkata Knight Riders coach made a few big splashes at the IPL Auction over the weekend, signing Australian Test captain Pat Cummins, as well as top-order batsman Shreyas Iyer, middle-order batsman Nitish Rana, all-rounder Shivam Mavi and wicketkeeper Sheldon Jackson.
They also retrained West Indian power hitter Andre Russell, as well as Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine.
“We were able to secure a team which we were pretty happy with,” McCullum told SENZ Breakfast.
“It was an awesome process and a really cool thing to be a part of.
“It definitely didn’t go to plan, but I’m also happy, if that makes sense.
“You’ve got 10 teams trying to fill their rosters with 25 players, so there’s 250 players up for sale, there were a few guys retained, but you’ve got the best in the game all being bid ferociously.
“There was a couple of players I was really gutted we didn’t get a hold of and there were a lot of players I was gutted we couldn’t even raise a bid for.
“The problem is you’ve got to hold your money for some of those who you’ve really prioritised.
“So if those guys come out beforehand and you haven’t gone to the well for that player that you wanted, then you’ve got to save your money for them.
“So we missed a couple of cheaper buys and a couple of guys I would have loved to have in the environment because of that … and then you miss some of those players anyway, so we could have actually bought those other guys, but that’s how it works.
“In the end I’m happy because I think we’ve got a really good squad on paper. Our first eleven is very strong. I think our international bench strength is very, very good.
“We’ve got a lot of young Indian guys who are unproven, but I’m okay with that because we’ve got international experience there and I know the personalities in the team that we’ve got that they’ll hasten the development of those guys, which is a really cool thing.
“Last year there was two guys in our side who were picked from nowhere and they’re now playing for India. That’s part of the role, to bring these guys through as quickly as possible.
“Overall we’re pretty happy. Only the one Kiwi for us, Tim Southee, we picked him up, a pretty cheap buy for someone who has been as good a performer as he has been.”
The IPL Auction continues today, with KKR expected to target uncapped players.