IPL Auctions are always tricky. Franchises often end up over-paying for players, who they have marked as potential buys. The 2025 edition of the auction will be remembered for the amount of money KKR spent on Iyer..Venkatesh Iyer and not Shreyas. The latter of course, was not retained by the team and was sold out to PBKS for 26.75 Cr.
Venkatesh Iyer Should be KKR Captain
Despite that KKR had a solid retained core — Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh. And then they went on to buy Quinton De Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anrich Nortje, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Moeen Ali, and even Umran Malik. So, their squad is well-rounded, but then they have a solid problem at hand.
They don’t have an out-an-out captaincy material player who really fits the bill. So, it only makes sense, for the amount of money they have spent of Venkatesh Iyer, he should be made the skipper. And there are a solid reasons for it.
IPL Auction 2025
KKR’s most expensive retention was Rinku at 13 Cr. He could have been a candidate, but then the difference between Venkatesh and him is over 10 Cr. And it somehow doesn’t justify the price point. In fact, in the entire squad picked at the IPL Auction by KKR, none of the players come close to Venkateshs’ price point. IN fact, after him, Nortje fetched the most money in the auction. So.
Not just that. Let’s just forget the price also. Venkatesh, believe it or not, has been excellent in the IPL. He has played all his four seasons with Kolkata, and scored 1326 runs at an average of 31. In 2024, he was brilliant for them scoring four fifties at a strike rate of 158. Plus, his numbers might suggest otherwise, but he’s a utility pacer, and certainly think like that. While leading the side he could be an asset.
In short, he could have a season to remember and come up with a season that no one expected him to.
KKR Full 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 crore), Anukul Roy (Rs. 40 lakh), Moeen Ali (Rs. 2 crore), Umran Malik (Rs. 75 lakh).
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