New Delhi, Mar 10 (IANS): Two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winner Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have named England wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt as replacement for his country-mate, opener Jason Roy, ahead of the 2024 IPL season starting on March 22.
The IPL informed in a statement that Roy pulled out of the upcoming 2024 edition owing to personal reasons, leading to KKR signing Salt as his replacement. Roy came to KKR in IPL 2023 after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out due to a lower back injury and Shakib Al Hasan wasn’t available for the season. Roy went on to make 285 runs in eight matches at an average of 35.63 and strike rate of 151.60, scoring two half-centuries. Salt first made an appearance in the IPL in the 2023 season, as he made 218 runs in nine matches for the Delhi Capitals, averaging 27.25 with a strike rate of 163.91, including two half-centuries.
Despite being one of the few positives in a forgettable 2023 season for Delhi, he found no takers in the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai last year. Roped in by KKR at his reserve price of INR 1.5 crore, Salt scored two consecutive T20I centuries against the West Indies in December last year. His 119 off 57 balls, where he reached his century in 48 balls, during the fourth T20I at Trinidad, is also the joint-fastest ton for England and the highest score in the format made by a batter from his country.
Salt had recent stints with Pretoria Capitals in the second season of SA20, before moving on to play for Desert Vipers in the ILT20.
KKR will commence their main pre-season camp in Kolkata ahead of the 2024 edition from March 15. Their IPL 2024 campaign starts against 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad at their home ground Eden Gardens on March 23.
KKR squad for IPL 2024: Shreyas Iyer, Phil Salt, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, K.S. Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman