'Were they retained to be benched?': Netizens question KKR dropping Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakaravarthy

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who are facing Rajasthan Royals (RR) in match 47 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, saw the side make two changes for the clash. While all teams make changes according to the need of the game, the changes made by KKR were that of retained players Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakaravarthy.

At the toss, skipper Shreyas Iyer, while electing to bowl first said the side is making two changes. "We have two changes. Anukul Roy comes in for Venky (Venkatesh Iyer) and Shivam Mavi comes in (for Varun Chakaravarthy)".

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The captain even explained why the changes were being made and said, "It's important to have the right combination. We are trying to give as many matches as possible to the players, but it's also important to get the right combinations".

Seeing how KKR has left their two retained players from IPL 2021 behind got netizens questioning their strategy.

KKR retained Venky n Varun ahead of Rahul tripathi just to bench them.

— Kavyansh (@Kohliisgoat) May 2, 2022

Varun Venky and 20 crs on bench

— Harshad (@RedDevilHarsh28) May 2, 2022

Retained Venky and Varun, let go Kuldeep and Tripathi.

Now dropped Venky and Varun.

Real stars: KKR management

— Arnab Ray (@greatbong) May 2, 2022

KKR could have retained Rahul Tripathi and Shubhman for 12cr but they choose to give 16cr to Venky and Mistri #IPL2022

— VEDANT (@vedant78_boi) May 2, 2022

Took 10 games for KKR last year to decide they want to retain Venky and it's taken 9 games to drop him this season

— Prashanth S (@ps_it_is) May 2, 2022

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Aaron Finch, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer(c), Baba Indrajith(w), Nitish Rana, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi