The Kolkata Knight Riders announced on Monday that they have traded in Shardul Thakur from the Delhi Capitals for the IPL 2023 season. The Capitals bought Thakur for a whopping sum of INR 10.75 crores in the IPL 2022 auctions.

KKR also traded out Aman Khan to the Capitals as part of the deal. Thakur is the third player that KKR have roped in during this trade window. Earlier, they also brought Lockie Ferguson and Rahmanullah Gurbaz in from the Gujarat Titans.

There has been plenty of changes already in the KKR squad. Apart from the players traded in and out, Pat Cummins and Sam Billings also announced their decision to opt out of the upcoming IPL season on Monday. Both played for KKR in IPL 2022 and were vital cogs of the side.

KKR didn’t have the best of outings last season as they finished in seventh place. They won six of their 14 matches while losing eight. Thakur is expected to play a key role for the Kolkata-based franchise now.

The bowling all-rounder is expected to slot into Cummins’ role. He will be expected to bowl all of his four overs while batting between number seven and eight.

Thakur claimed 15 wickets in the 14 matches he played for the Capitals last season but he turned out to be very expensive, recording an overall economy rate of 9.79 during the season. With the bat, he amassed 120 runs at a strike-rate of 137.93.

Thakur’s arrival at KKR is no surprise as the current head coach Chandrakant Pandit is very fond of the player and their captain Shreyas Iyer also knows him well, as both hail from Mumbai and have played together. Although Thakur has shown immense potential with both bat and ball, he hasn’t quite been able to become a specialist in either department yet. He will be looking to improve and enjoy an excellent season under the tutelage of Pandit now.