Kolkata Knight Riders lived up to the saying by setting up their house quite nicely in a late flourish at the IPL player's auction in Bengaluru on Sunday. At the end of two long days of bidding, the city-based franchise ended up building up a squad of 25 players that includes eight foreigners. The team management went about in a strategic manner without going very big for any of the players, but at the same time ending up with a balanced side with at least one for all position. KKR entered the accelerated auction phase with the highest remaining purse and made full use of it to shape up their squad. IPL AUCTION: AS IT HAPPENEDInterestingly the team formed a very good leadership group in Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins and Ajinkya Rahane, picking up the last mentioned on Sunday at his base price of Rs 1 crore. While it looks like KKR would opt for Rahane to open with retained player Venkatesh Iyer, getting England's Alex Hales late in the day provides them with another good opening option. The side's wicket-keeping slot, which was a bit vulnerable with only Sheldon Jackson and Baba Indrajith, looks bright now with the acquisition of England's Sam Billings. They also did well to pick New Zealand pacer Tim Southee, who can act as a back-up for Cummins, from the accelerated list.
