For the first time in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) a defending champion side has not retained as captain by his side. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) decided not to retain Shreyas Iyer for the IPL 2025 Retention List. The Kolkata outfits decided to retain 6 of their players, but Shreyas Iyer missed out on it.
And now, the IPL 2024 winning captain will be available in the IPL 2025 Mega Auction. The other teams will be eager to get the star player while Kolkata Knight Riders doesn’t have any Right To Match (RTM) left after having exhausted 6 retention places.
No place for Shreyas Iyer in KKR
In the history of IPL since 2008, this has been the first time ever that an IPL defending captain hasn’t been retained by his side. Reports claimed that Shreyas Iyer demanded a retention price of 30 crore which KKR didn’t want to give. As a result, the side parted ways with him.
KKR decided to retain Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, and uncapped stars Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh.
In the IPL Mega Auction, KKR will be keen to target a captain. And that could well be Rishabh Pant. The former Delhi Capitals captain too had a fall out with his side and wasn’t retained. In fact, Rishabh Pant will be the most sought player in the upcoming auction.