IPL 2022: Sam Billings is ready to play for his third franchise in the IPL, the Kolkata Knight Riders who acquired the services of the Englishman in the mega-auction last month for his base price of 2 crore. The wicket-keeper batsman has landed in India, completed his mandatory isolation, and has begun training with the other KKR players and staff.
Billings has previously played for Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings; he was part of the 2018 title-winning CSK squad and played 10 games that season. Overall, the Kent-born cricketer has played 19 innings in the IPL, scoring 334 runs at a strike rate of 133, and has 3 fifties to his name.
Speaking about the IPL extravaganza, Billings, who has played in plenty of different cricket leagues, said that none matches the IPL. He pointed out that the IPL has a huge amount of following not just in India, but around the globe.
“Sam Hai Taiyaar. KKR Hai Taiyaar. I think the IPL is the biggest domestic tournament in the world. You don’t need to say anything more than that. It’s my sixth year and absolutely love playing over here in India,” Billings said in a video uploaded by KKR.
“I think the support, the fans take it to a completely different dimension to any other sport in the world. You’ve got 1.2 billion people or so. And everyone absolutely loves cricket. So it’s a pleasure for players to play here. It’s an honour to play here,” he added.
Sam Billings, who has immense experience of white-ball cricket having featured in over 200 T20 games and more than 100 List-A, matches reckons KKR have a strong squad to challenge for their third title win in IPL 2022.
“I’m really looking forward to another great year. For me, a new challenge with Kolkata. We’ve got such a strong squad, the support staff, and also the overseas guys. The strength of the squad is the upward pressure from guys who aren’t in the team. As a team, of course, we are gonna win the tournament, hopefully. May 29, the final, that’s the end goal,” the Englishman declared.
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