Former KKR star retires from Indian cricket to aim for overseas franchise leagues

The former Karnataka and Kolkata Knight Riders’ spinner, KC Cariappa, has decided to retire from Indian cricket as he aims to feature in the overseas franchise leagues around the world. The 31-year-old featured in 23 innings in first-class cricket, where he has earned 75 wickets at an average of 23.20 and a strike rate of 55.8, thanks to his 54-wicket haul and six 5-wicket hauls.

From Karnataka, Cariappa made the move to Mizoram, where he featured in the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) and picked up one wicket in his last game against Manipur, besides picking two 3-wicket holes against Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. He has always been a very fine bowler in the shortest format of the game.

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In 20 innings of the domestic 50-over format, the spinner has picked up 24 wickets at an average of Justice over 31 and a strike rate of 43.2, thanks to his economy rate of 4.38 with the best figures of 3/28. In case of the T20s, he has picked up 58 wickets at an economy rate of 6.60 at an average of 24.62.

KC Cariappa retires from all forms of Indian cricket

Cariappa was part of two IPL franchises, the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Punjab Kings, from 2015 to 2019. In his very first season, he played just one game for Kolkata, where he picked a 1 wicket before featuring in nine clashes for the Punjab side, where he picked up seven wickets in nine innings before making his move back to Kolkata, where he played just one game again in 2019.

Since then, Cariappa has not played a single IPL game. However, just like some of the other players of Indian cricket- including Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Shikhar Dhawan, and others- he also aims to feature in the overseas franchise leagues around the world, having retired from Indian cricket.

With the bat, he was not a regular candidate with an average of 26.47 in first-class cricket, having celebrated 4 half-centuries. Cariappa’s unusual action of the leg spin makes it harder for the batsman to pick him from the hand, which may also help him in future franchise leagues around the world.