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Cameron Green of Royal Challengers Bangalore celebrates the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane of Chennai Superkings during match 1 of the Indian Premier League season 17 (IPL 2024) between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore held at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on the 22nd March 2024.
(Photo by Ron Gaunt / Sportzpics for IPL)
Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Shane Watson said that the franchise was absolutely stoked to have Cameron Green in the team for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The 2024 champions snapped up Green in the IPL auction earlier this week for a whopping Rs 25.2 crore, staving off competition from Chennai Super Kings as well as Rajasthan Royals.
“I’ve always been a massive fan of Cameron Green. I’m an all-rounder at heart, so I know what it takes to push the limits to be the best all-rounder that you possibly can be. And I’ve always absolutely loved everything about Cameron Green – the way he goes about his skill set as a batter, and his incredible skill set as a bowler as well,” Watson said in an interview on the franchise’s website.
“He’s got incredible height, he’s got incredible skill, and I’ve been wanting to have a chance to be able to work with him really closely. I’ve had a number of conversations with him over the years, to be able to just help him wherever he needs it. But I haven’t had a chance to be able to work with him in a team and help him on his journey to be the very best that he possibly can be. Now, because of KKR, I get a chance to be able to work with him and pass on my knowledge that I was so fortunate to be able to gain throughout my playing days, playing with so many incredible players,” he added.
After winning the 2024 season, 2025 wasn’t an ideal one for the Knights with the defending champions finishing a lowly 8th in the table. So ahead of the auctions, they released some of the big names in the squad with Venkatesh Iyer and Andre Russell among them. Iyer who was bought back by KKR for a whopping Rs 23.75 crore in the auctions last year was not retained by the Knights, opening up a sizeable part of their budget as they entered this year’s auction with the highest purse.
They ultimately splurged the lion’s share of that cash on Green and Matheesha Pathirana (Rs 18 crore) as well as bringing in Rachin Ravindra (Rs 2 crore), Finn Allen (Rs 2 core) and Mustafizur Rahman (Rs 9.2 core)
“From a KKR perspective, to be able to have someone who can bat in the top three, (he has scored IPL hundreds in those positions) or if needed, he also can bat at six and seven and power hit – he’s an incredible power hitter. That makes him incredibly versatile. He is also a world-class fast bowler. He’s tall, he gets bounce, and he’s also got more to be able to grow from a bowling perspective,” Watson said on Green.
“He’s got Dwayne Bravo, and also Andre Russell to work with, along with myself, to develop his T20 bowling skills. He’s a super nice guy, he’s a great team man, so look, you can see why the bids went up so high for him. We were adamant to be able to get him, because we knew the calibre of cricketer he is, and he’s a young guy too. He’s 26, so he’s got a lot of years of IPL cricket left in him,” he added.
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