“Kolkata is like my second home”: Gautam Gambhir joins KKR ahead of IPL 2024

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 15 (ANI): Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor Gautam Gambhir received a warm welcome from the fans at the NSCBI Airport in Kolkata and he asserted that Kolkata is his second home.

The former India opener stated that KKR is an emotion to him and thanked the fans for giving such a warm welcome.

“Thank You for standing here and giving me a warm welcome. Kolkata is like my second home and KKR is an emotion,” Gambhir told the media on Thursday.

The 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will start on March 22, with defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) set to clash with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a South Indian derby at their home arena–MA Chidambaram Stadium.

KKR will play their opening game of the IPL 2024 against Pat Cummins-led SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 23. The match will start at 7:30 pm.

Earlier on Sunday, KKR named Phil Salt as Jason’s replacement for the upcoming season of the IPL 2024.

With star overseas players like Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Phil Salt, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Mitchell Starc available along with a strong Indian core in Nitish Rana, skipper Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Charkavarthy, KKR will be aiming to do well in IPL 2024.

Last season, they finished seventh with six wins and eight losses. 12 points were not enough to earn them a spot in playoffs.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) IPL 2024 squad: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer, Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain.