Kolkata Knight Riders Squad Review 2018

Last year IPL - Indian Premier League completed 10 glorious years. As announced a grand auction was held at Bangalore in January 2018. With the return of two popular franchise team Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, the auction got so much excitement all over the world. After so many discussion the decision was taken of retaining players that each team will be able to retain max 3 players. So all 8 teams announced their list of retained players. 

8 IPL franchises retain these following players

Kolkata Knight Riders	Andre Russell, Sunil Narine
Royal Challengers Bangalore	Virat Kohli, Sarfaraz Khan, AB de Villiers
Chennai Super Kings	MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja
Mumbai Indians	Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah
Sunrisers Hyderabad	David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Rajasthan Royals	Steve Smith
Kings XI Punjab	Axar Patel
Delhi Daredevils	Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris

Coming to the retaining decision of Kolkata based franchise Kolkata Knight Riders decided to retain hard hitter all-rounder Andre Russel and Mystery spinner-batsman Sunil Narine. After completing one year ban on cricket Russel will be super excited to back in the game with a bang. And what else is there to talk about the magnificent Sunil Narine. This duo going to play a vital role for KKR in IPL 2018. We will be looking forward to watch so many 4s and 6s all around the ground this year from them. We will be ready to cheer for each and every wicket taken by them.

Now coming to the auction Kolkata Knight Riders bench was ready with their plan. But there was a big decision to make by them, as Gautam Gambhir who was behind all the success of last 7 years requested KKR not to bid from them or use the RTM card. So that he can play for his home team.  That decision surely made all the KKR fans very much sad.

The next two buy was quite expensive for KKR. But has to say picking up Chris Lynn and Mitchel Starc has made the team stronger. While Lynn can make runs with magnificent run rat, Starc can pick up quick wickets with his fiery bowling. KKR fans must be very happy to have these two Aussie players in the team. Lynn sanity will be back this year again at the Eden Gardens.

We know that Kolkata Knight Riders team management always made their team with a different thought each and every time. They always prefer great talent rather than big names, so that team can be a good mixture of good talents and experience. That's why they decided to focus on the young Indian talents who were doing great for the U-19 team in the World Cup in New Zealand. They just went for some of the best from the team by picking up Subhman Gill, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shibam Mavi. We should not forget that Shubhman Gill was selected the Man of the tournament in U-19 ICC World Cup. Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Mavi are now well known for their pace bowling with 140+ kmph speed. With the new bouncy pitch at the Eden Gardens, these two bowlers can be dangerous for the opposition teams. 

Later KKR team used their RTM cards to bring Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav back in their squad for IPL 2018. Dinesh Kartik, Nitish Rana and Ishank Jaggi were picked up to bring strength in the middle order of the team. To make the bowling line-up strong Vinay Kumar, Cameron Delport and Mitchel Johnson were brought in with some domestic players with good performances like A Wankhede, Rinku Singh.

So, at last, we can tell that like every year the team is a good mixture of experience and talents. Though we don't have too many big names in the team, we can expect young knights to perform well to keep the good performance of the team throughout the tournament. 

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I am super excited to watch these knights rocking each and every game in this year IPL. What do you think? Don't forget to let us know by commenting below. 

The Speciality of Rahul Dravid in Indian Cricket.

On 3rd February 2018 U-19 boys of the Indian Cricket Team won the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup (4th title) in New Zealand under the captaincy of Prithvi Shaw. The whole team was under the training with the guidance of Rahul Dravid. They not just won the tournament, they outplayed each and every team they faced to progress to the top place of the tournament.

• 14th January India U19 defeated Australia U19 by 100 runs.
• 16th January India U19 defeated Australia U19 by 10 wickets.
• 19th January India U19 defeated Australia U19 by 10 wickets.
• 26th January India U19 defeated Australia U19 by 131 runs.
• 30th January India U19 defeated Australia U19 by 203 runs.
• 3rd February India U19 defeated Australia U19 by 8 wickets.

Shubman Gill was selected as the Player of the Tournament for his outstanding batting performance at the knock out stage as well as in other matches also. Anukul Roy became the best bowler to take most wickets(14). Captain Prithvi Shaw was also in good touch with the bat. It was exciting to see young Indian bowlers Shivam Mavi, Ishan Porel, Kamlesh Nagarkoti bowling at a superb pace to knockout the batsmen. All those stats described that they have gone through outstanding coaching to become eligible to take home the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup.

Rahul Dravid was an important part of Indian Cricket Team when he was a part of the national team. He has saved his team many times from defeat and that's why people call him "The wall of Indian Cricket". Unfortunately, he was able to win a world cup as a player. But after he took the responsibility of the U-19 boys in 2015, people started dreaming to see him winning world cup as a coach. He was very closed to win the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup in 2016. But his boys were defeated by U-19 West Indies boys in a thrilling final by 5 wickets (with 3 balls remaining) in Dhaka. But this time he got the taste of winning a world cup as a coach and we Indians are super happy about that.

While talking about getting the world cup as a coach he said, actually he is not too much disappointed for not getting world cup as a player, but winning a world cup is always special. He gave all the credit to the boys in blue for their amazing performance. But it was the players who told media how Rahul Dravid told them not to think about IPL auction when they were on the list on the day of the auction or Playing against Pakistan in the high voltage semi-final. 

We are very much thankful to Rahul Dravid for your contribution in Indian Cricket. Thank you again for making the future stars of our country.

Shouldn't India play less matches against Sri Lanka and West Indies??!!

Currently, Indian Cricket Team is winning each and every series like a Boss. Looks like the team management has made a great set of a team for each and every cricket format. Currently, they are busy playing the limited cricket against Sri Lanka. If we go behind the cricket calendar we can see that India has played lots of matches against Sri Lanka and West Indies. Cricket fans always love to watch a match where each and every team will play very good cricket and they will have a great entertainment at the stadium.

When it comes to Test cricket Sri Lanka and West Indies delivered their worst performances in the recent years. India has played so many matches in last two years with it West Indies and most of the times the result went in favour of India (Except the t20 series in West Indies).

Why don't BCCI plan for a series against other teams like Bangladesh, New Zealand few more times, as they have delivered a great performance against India in the recent times? After this series, the cricket show will shift to South Africa where India's overseas challenge will be tested. We are very much excited to witness amazing cricket from team India.

Bhopal BJP MLA Pannalal Shakya's controversial comments on Virat Kohli's marriage in Italy.

After captaining Indian Cricket Team against the Test series against Sri Lanka, Virat Kohli opted to skip the limited over Cricket series against Sri Lanka (3 ODIs and 3 T20s). Suddenly we got to know that Virat and his girlfriend Anushka Sharma are getting married in Italy. The rumour became reality after the couple announced their wedding over social media on 11th December 2017.

Today we have promised each other to be bound in love for ever. We are truly blessed to share the news with you.This beautiful day will be made more special with the love and support of our family of fans & well wishers. Thank you for being such an important part of our journey. pic.twitter.com/aobTUwMNAK

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) December 11, 2017 

Today we have promised each other to be bound in love forever. We are truly blessed to share the news with you. This beautiful day will be made more special with the love and support of our family of fans & well wishers. Thank you for being such an important part of our journey. pic.twitter.com/Scobdiqk7l

— Anushka Sharma (@AnushkaSharma) December 11, 2017

After returning to India, they started their planning for their Wedding Reception in Delhi. Suddenly we got to hear about one sick mind politician's comment on Virat's patriotism. After getting the true news the info we got that the man was Pannalal Shakya, a BJP MLA from Bhopal. While delivering a speech to his follower he said that “Virat earned money in India… But he didn’t find any place to marry in the country. Is Hindustan untouchable?”

He also added that “Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Vikramaditya, Yudhishthir got married on this land. You all must have got married here. None of us goes to a foreign country to get married. He earned money here and spent billions there (Italy). He doesn’t have any respect for the country. This proves he is not a patriot.”

That's all? So these backdated mind persons are part of our country's government. If marrying outside India is against patriotism for Virat, then delivering his (MLA) speech outside his home must have also been the same. India is an independent country and each & every Indian have the right to do whatever they want to do in their own way. These politicians will never stop targetting famous people by speaking something disgusting. This is clearly a stunt to come in the headlines.

However, Virat and Anushka went to invite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for their Wedding Reception in Delhi. Many people have supported Kohli over this situation. Gautam Gambhir was one of them. We still haven't received any reaction from Kohli and Anushka. We would like to watch this couple as cool they are. God bless them. 

Sunil Chhetri comes in support of the NorthEast United FC fans

On last Thursday, 23rd November we got to see a video of few NorthEast United FC fans (including ladies) being heckled in Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium by Chennaiyin FC fans during the ISL match between Chennaiyin FC and NorthEast United. Here's the video shared by someone who was present in the stadium on that day.

Is this how you treat visiting fans @ChennaiyinFC @Supermachans ?? pic.twitter.com/XP5l6nA4el

— Khalid Mahmood (@TheReal_Khalid) November 23, 2017

The video showed some Chennaiyin FC fans making bad gestures towards the female NorthEast United FC supporters. Those NorthEast United FC supporters were totally disturbed and were trying to stop those Chennaiyin FC fans. It disheartening to see such rubbish behavior from these people. Those NorthEast United FC fans were totally humiliated and after the video was shared across social media, it caught the eyes of the Clubs and the concerned authorities.

NorthEast United FC was quick to post a tweet by supporting their fans.

Statement: NEUFC stands by the the passionate supporters who faced untoward incident at the Marina Arena in Chennai last night. Here is a brief statement from our owner John Abraham. #Highlanders we are with you. #8States1United pic.twitter.com/ceej8iVvG3

— NorthEast United FC (@NEUtdFC) November 24, 2017

Chennaiyin FC also said that it strongly condemns any racist acts with a tweet.

Chennaiyin FC has a very strict and firm policy against racism and any unbecoming behaviour in the stadium. The club strongly condemns any such act. We are looking into any such incidents and will take strong action against it. pic.twitter.com/0ZD2VjMCBM

— Chennaiyin FC (@ChennaiyinFC) November 24, 2017

There is no statement from Chennaiyin FC owner Abhishek Bachchan till yet. But we have seen Indian Football Team and Bengaluru FC captain Sunil Chhetri standing against such incident in a place where they play this beautiful game. Good to see our national captain's responsibility.

A lot has been happening that’s far from what football stands for and the joy it gives us. As fans of the game lets all add a little responsibility, that of being better humans.

— Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) November 25, 2017

It's really bad to see such incident happening in India after a successful hosting of the FIFA U-17 World Cup. There's a huge need for top quality security for both of players and crowds.

Amazon Obhijaan - The next big project in Bengali film industry.

After getting a great response for "Chander Pahar", Kamaleshwar Mukherjee announced that he will be back with another thriller soon and he announced his next big project "Amazon Obhijaan". This time also DEV going to play the lead role. They started shooting for the film long time ago and the film is all set to release in December, 2017.

In this film DEV going to comeback in role of a famous adventurer Shankar and this time he will be seen exploring the vast jungle of Amazon of South America in a search of the mysterious land of gold, El Dorado. Svetlana Gulakova, Laboni Sarkar (Shankar's mother), Tamal Ray Chowdhury (Shankar's father), Aryan Ashik (Police Inspector) and Eduardo Munniz will be also seen in this adventurous film. Shree Venkatesh Films has produced the film and as the release date is coming very soon they have started to promote the film very well. In Indian cinema history the previous biggest poster was of the south blockbuster "Baahubali", but this this SVF came up with a great idea to promote their film as they unveils the biggest film poster for this film. They launched a huge 60,800 sq ft. poster at the Mohun Bagan football ground in Kolkata on 4th November,2017. Thousands of people were there to experience this great moment of Bengali film history. This poster was 320 ft. long and 190 ft. wide according to the information by the SVF crew team.

Amazon Obhijaan which is expected to be the most expensive Bengali film ever (around Rs. 20 crore) will be released in multiple languages at the end of the year. With "Amazon Obhijaan", Shree Venkatesh Films going to achieve another milestone as it is the 100th film of that production house. And we are super excited for the adventurous thriller film. Eagerly waiting for Amazon Obhijaan to hit screens near us.

Does MS Dhoni has anything more to deliver for the Indian Cricket?

From the very first days of Indian Cricket we have seen many captains leading our national team in the international tours and tournaments. And when it comes to getting the success, MS Dhoni's name will be there for sure. And why not? He has given us the taste of winning the world cup which we were waiting for long long time. At first ICC World Twenty20 2007 and then ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Under his captaincy we have ranked top in ICC test Ranking. We used to love the Dhamakdar batting of the vintage MSD in his initial days in Indian Team. That's why he has become all time favorite to the Indian Cricket Team fans.

In the recent years we have seen MS Dhoni losing the golden touch he had in his batting. In 2004 he was having a outstanding Strike Rate of 135.71. But during 2014-2015 MSD started to lose the momentum he had. Though we call him as the greatest finisher of the game, we haven't seen him finishing the innings like he did or failed to take the team to the victory. As the day progressed, his performance graph started getting lower and lower. We all know that during recent t20 series we haven't Dhoni in good touch, though he got some runs in the ODI series. The current Indian captain Virat has backed him a lot in spite of his poor batting performance. But the cricketing pundits and former Indian cricketers like VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Gavaskar expressed their disappointment about Dhoni's selection in the t20 team. So the question is are we going to see him retiring from t20 format cricket to concentrate on ODI matches or selectors gonna take a decision for him.

What's your say on it? Shoot them out in the comments below.....