On Wednesday, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) announced the signing of England opener Jason Roy to their team in order to bolster their batting lineup after the injury to regular captain Shreyas Iyer and the withdrawal of Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.
KKR faced a major setback as they lost their regular captain Shreyas Iyer to a back injury ruling him out for the entire season. To add to their woes, Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan also withdrew from the tournament citing personal and national commitments.
“Kolkata Knight Riders have signed England’s Jason Roy for Rs. 2.8 crore for the TATA IPL 2023 from his base price of Rs. 1.5 crore,” said KKR in a statement on Wednesday.
Jason Roy, who previously played for Gujarat Lions in 2017 and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2021 season, has been signed by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to fill the void left by Shreyas Iyer and Shakib Al Hasan.
The England opener had scored 150 runs, with a fifty, in the five games he played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2021 season. Roy has played 64 T20Is for England, scoring 1,522 runs at a strike-rate of 137.61 and registering eight fifties.
After struggling in 2022 and being in and out of the England national team due to a lack of runs, Roy has recently rediscovered his form in white-ball cricket.
He scored ODI centuries against South Africa and Bangladesh and played his last competitive match for Quetta Gladiators in the PSL, where he scored a remarkable 145 runs in just 63 balls.
It is unclear whether Jason Roy will be available for Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL home game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday as KKR did not provide any details on his availability.
It is likely that Jason Roy will replace Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the wicketkeeper-batter from Afghanistan, who opened in KKR’s previous match against Punjab Kings and scored 22 runs off 16 balls. KKR already has N Jagadeesan to take care of the wicketkeeping duties.