Kolkata signs England's Roy to fill Iyer and Shakib's spot for Rs 2.8 crore

Kolkata Knight Riders signed England batter Jason Roy to replace Shakib's and Shreyas Iyer's spot in the team. KKR still haven't made it clear whether or not Roy will be available for their upcoming match against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

KKR issued a statement mentioning, "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."

The last time Roy featured in IPL was in 2021 when he was playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He played five games that season and scored 150 runs, including a half-century.

Jason Roy is also in very good form, he smashed 145 runs in 63 deliveries, playing against Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League last month.

The 32-year-old has played 64 T20Is for England, scoring 1,522 runs with eight fifties, at a strike rate of 137.61.

Shakib unavailable for the season

Shakib said personal reasons and commitments to his national team made him unavailable for the entire IPL 2023 season.

Shakib Al Hasan already missed the season opener against Punjab, and his fellow teammate Litton Das, whom the franchise bought for Rs 50 lakh, missed that match too. However, there is no clarity so far about Litton Das' availability in the KKR squad.

Shreyas Iyer ruled out of IPL 2023

The first big blow came for KKR when Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the entire IPL 2023 season due to a lower back injury. He was struggling with the injury ever since he returned from the Bangladesh tour in December 2022. After discussing with the medical teams, he was ruled out from the first half of the season, but the latest report claimed that Shreyas Iyer will miss the entire season.