Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had released their captain Shreyas Iyer before the mega auction of the marquee event took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The franchise failed to bring him back when he went under the hammer. Punjab Kings (PBKS) who entered the auction with the highest purse brought him for a whopping Rs 26.75 crore which was the second most expensive pick in the history of the tournament. First was Rishabh Pant as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) splurged Rs 27 crore on him.
KKR brought a lot of players like Ajinkya Rahane, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje as they are looking for their skipper for the upcoming edition of the tournament. There are speculations that Rinku Singh will lead the side in the upcoming edition of the tournament.
However, former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif who represented Delhi Capitals (DC), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) during his playing days reckoned that Venkatesh Iyer will lead the Kolkata-based franchise in IPL 2025. He further said that his MP coach Chandrakant Pandit (who is a KKR coach as well) by his side will help the young batter to lead the franchise.
"KKR spending Rs 23.75 crore on Venkatesh Iyer almost confirms his captaincy. Having his MP coach Chandrakant Pandit by his side will help. Iyer has a chance to make it big, very big" Kaif posted.
KKR squad
Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer (Rs. 23.75 crore), Quinton de Kock (Rs. 3.60 crore), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Rs. 2 crore), Anrich Nortje (Rs. 6.50 crore), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Rs. 3 crore), Vaibhav Arora (Rs. 1.80 crore), Mayank Markande (Rs. 30 lakh), Rovman Powell (Rs. 1.50 crore), Manish Pandey (Rs. 75 lakh), Spencer Johnson (Rs. 2.80 crore), Luvnith Sisodia (Rs. 30 lakh), Ajinkya Rahane (Rs. 1.50 lakh), Anukul Roy (Rs. 40 lakh), Moeen Ali (Rs. 2 crore), Umran Malik (Rs. 75 lakh).
