Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Abhishek Nayar has opined his thoughts on the high-voltage IPL auctions, which have become a yearly spectacle before the IPL.
KKR were at the centre of a major squad overhaul in the most recent auction, as they snapped up 13 players on a combined fee of Rs 63.85 crore. Cameron Green and Matheesha Pathirana were their key big signings, as the duo cost them Rs 43.2 crore in total. But the KKR head coach believes the IPL auction may become obsolete in coming years.
On The Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan, KKR head coach Abhishek Nayar celebrated the franchise's player development pipeline, pointing to Angkrish Raghuvanshi as the ultimate homegrown success.
"One player we can call truly ours is Angkrish Raghuvanshi
- a system player and a product of the KKR Academy. We worked on him first and then selected him, which is our biggest achievement. They say there are three stars of the championship, but Angkrish is like the fourth star on the KKR Badge. "
Tracing Raghuvanshi's nine-year journey with KKR from age 11 to 20, Nayar contrasted it with the conventional auction-buy-and-build approach.
He added, "From the age of 11 to 20, his journey has been with KKR. Other teams pick players and then work on them, but we invested early. If someone else had taken Ankrish at the auction, it would have hurt. That's why I believe there should be no Indian T20 League auctions after a few years. Teams are doing it differently now, and this can only have a positive impact. "
The promising Mumbai top-order batter first grabbed headlines at the 2022 ICC U-19 World Cup, where he led India with 278 runs in six innings, capping it with a heroic 72 in the final triumph over England. KKR integrated him seamlessly into IPL 2024, rewarding his domestic form with a debut knock of 37 off 21. He was part of the IPL 2025 auction as KKR bought him for Rs 3 crore, and the Knight Riders have retained his services for IPL 2026 as well.
