"Needed someone to take KKR forward, he can score 500 runs for us": Head coach Nayar on Green's acquisition

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 21 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Abhishek Nayar spoke on the three-time champions' acquisition of Australian all-rounder Cameron Green, saying that with the veteran all-rounder Andre Russell retired and with the franchise as its power coach, they needed someone to "take the franchise forward" and put all his chips on Green scoring 500 runs in an IPL season.
Green's acquisition for Rs 25.20 crores by KKR was the biggest story of the IPL 2026 auction held in Abu Dhabi last week, becoming the most expensive overseas buy in the history of the tournament and the third-most expensive player overall.
Speaking on 'TATA IPL Auction Review', Nayar said that his team "wanted to go all out" for Green.
"I cannot say how high we were willing to go for him, but we wanted to go all out. If we have the money, we spend it. There was no point in saving the money. The goal was to do whatever we could to secure Green, as he is a key player for us. With Andre Russell gone, we need someone to take the franchise forward. So, we decided we must have Cameron Green," he said.
Nayar said KKR views the tall Aussie all-rounder as a number three batter and expressed hope he could continue a trend of top-order batters scoring 400+ runs for Australia, which has contributed to their success, most notably the title win in 2024 under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, during which the opening pair of Sunil Narine (488 runs) and Phil Salt (438 runs) scored heavily for the team.
"We see Cameron Green batting in the top three. He is a player who can score 500 runs for us. That is why we were so desperate to get him. We know he has that ability. He has scored over 500 runs in the IPL before, so he can do well in the top order. He solves different problems for us. Over the past few years, our success came when our top three players scored more than 400 runs. The hope is that he can score big runs for us," he added.
Green has scored 521 runs in 21 T20I matches at an average of 32.56, with an SR of 160.30, with six fifties, and has 12 wickets, averaging 23.35. He has scored 1,334 runs in 63 T20S at an average of 33.35, with an SR of 151.07, with a century and seven fifties and taken 28 wickets, averaging above 34.
The young Aussie all-rounder featured in the 2023 and 2024 IPL seasons with the Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), scoring 707 runs in 29 matches at an average of 41.58, with an SR of 153-plus, a century and two fifties, and took 16 wickets at an average of above 41.5. But he did not participate in last season's auction due to injury. In his debut season with MI, he made 452 runs in 16 matches at an average of 50.22 and a strike rate of above 160, with a century and two fifties.
A JioStar expert also analysed KKR's buys at the auction, saying that getting NZ all-rounder Rachin Ravindra at base price was smart and there is "serious batting power" in the squad.
"KKR have done really well. Getting Rachin Ravindra at base price (Rs two crores) was smart. He is a quality player. He did not have a great season with CSK, but KKR is trying to replicate their winning season from a few years ago. They have Tim Seifert or Finn Allen to open the innings and keep wickets. Cameron Green will take the place of Andre Russell in the team. Russell was a master finisher, while Green prefers batting in the top three, but they will make it work. All in all, the squad of KKR is looking really solid, and they have serious batting power in their squad," he concluded.
Kolkata Knight Riders Full Squad: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Rahul Tripathi (Rs 75 lakh), Finn Allen (Rs 2 Cr), Tejasvi Singh (Rs 3 Cr), Tim Seifert (Rs 1.50 Cr), Cameron Green (Rs 25.20 Cr), Sarthak Ranjan (Rs 30 lakh), Daksh Kamra (Rs 30 lakh), Rachin Ravindra (Rs 2 Cr), Prashant Solanki (Rs 30 lakh), Matheesha Pathirana (Rs 18 Cr), Kartik Tyagi (Rs 30 lakh), Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 9.20 Cr), Akash Deep (Rs 1 Cr). (ANI)