Sunil Narine gave his gratitude to Kolkata Knight Riders for retaining him ahead of the mega auction of IPL 2022. The mystery spinner said that he wouldn’t want to be at any other place than Kolkata Knight Riders.
Narine has been a long servant for the franchise over the years and he has played an instrumental role in the success of the team.
The talisman spinner has played 134 matches for KKR in which he has scalped 143 wickets. Narine made his IPL debut for Kolkata Knight Riders against Rajasthan Royals back in IPL 2012. The mystery spinner is one of the most successful bowlers in the tournament and concedes his runs at a parsimonious economy rate of 6.74.
Furthermore, Narine has also delivered with the bat for Kolkata Knight Riders. Narine has scored 954 runs in the IPL at a blistering strike rate of 161.69. In fact, Narine has also played the role of an opener for the franchise in many matches.
Narine played a crucial role in taking KKR to glory in 2012 and 2014 under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir. Furthermore, he scalped 16 wickets in IPL 2021 and played a big part in taking his team to the final of the tourney.
Narine was retained by KKR for INR 6 crores along with his West Indian teammate Andre Russell and youngsters like Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy.
“There’s no other place I’d like to be than KKR because I have played all my cricket here. “I would love to continue representing the franchise It’s a home away from home, my second home. So, I hope it can continue,” Narine has said in a short film “The Comeback King” that was released on Thursday.
Narine also opened when he was reported for a suspected action in 2020 and then he had to remodel his action, which was not easy for him.
“It (being called for illegal bowling action in 2020) was tough! But at the end of the day, cricket was never easy for me. I had to work for everything I have. So, it was just like another stepping stone where I had to dig deep, work hard and come out on top,” Narine said.
