Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) announced on Wednesday that English batter Jason Roy will join the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the current season. Roy has been brought in after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the League due to a lower back injury. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is also not playing this season for the Shahrukh Khan-owned team.

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“Kolkata Knight Riders have signed England’s Jason Roy for INR 2.8 crore for the TATA IPL 2023 from his base price of INR 1.5 crore,” IPL said in a statement today.

Roy, who last featured in the IPL in 2021 for Sunrisers Hyderabad, is considered to be one of the most dangerous T20I opening batters. His addition could provide the explosiveness that KKR needs during the powerplay. The 32-year-old has played 64 T20Is for England, scoring 1522 runs at a strike rate of 137.61 with eight fifties.

Upon joining the two-time champions, Roy expressed his excitement in a video message posted by KKR’s official Twitter handle. “I just wanted to say how excited I am to put the KKR jersey on in this year’s IPL. Very excited to be up there and join a very great squad and a great management team. Thank you for the opportunity. I will see you all very very soon,” said Jason.

This IPL season will be a great opportunity for Roy to overcome his inconsistent form and establish himself as a contender for a spot in England’s 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup squad. England will be defending their 50-over crown in India from October-November this year.

Roy has scored 329 runs in 13 IPL matches throughout his career for sides like Gujarat Lions, Delhi Capitals, and Sunrisers Hyderabad, with two fifties and a best score of 91.

Kolkata Knight Riders lost their opening match against PBKS by 7 runs (DLS method), and Roy’s presence in that match could have certainly changed the game’s dimension. In the chase of 192, KKR was off to a poor start, but Roy’s job will be to prevent KKR from falling into such situations in the future.

KKR will be back in action against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday at their home ground, Eden Gardens.

2023 Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Squad:

Nitish Rana (Captain), Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Jason Roy, Mandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Shakib Al Hasan, David Wiese, Andre Russell, N Jagadeesan, Litton Das, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Vaibhav Arora, Lockie Ferguson, Harshit Rana, Kulwant Khejroliya, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Suyash Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakaravarthy and Umesh Yadav

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