Faced with a problem of plenty, KKR let go off quite a few big names.
Defending Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) retained six players ahead of the retention deadline.
Faced with a problem of plenty, having to crop and select from a championship-winning squad, KKR let go off quite a few big names.
Amongst them was dynamic batting all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who played an integral role in helping KKR win the title last season.
Following the retention announcement, Iyer has now broken his silence. While he feels that KKR’s retention was extremely holistic and they touched almost all the bases, he simultaneously also got emotional for not getting retained by the franchise.
Speaking to Revsportz, Venkatesh said, “KKR has had a very good retention. I think they have covered easily 14-16 overs and with the bat, they have almost covered five positions. So, they had a great retention but I would have loved to be on that list. KKR have given me a big breakthrough and I have given everything for KKR and beyond cricket, there’s something called emotion”.
KKR decided to use up all their six retention spots and will now go into the IPL 2025 auction with 0 Right to Match (RTM) cards in their kitty.
The Shahrukh Khan co-owned franchise decided to stick with sensational talent Rinku Singh as their top retention at INR 13 crore, followed by the Caribbean duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine at INR 12 crore each along with spin maestro Varun Chakravarthy at the same price.
They also retained two uncapped players at INR 4 crore – Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana.
KKR will now enter the IPL 2025 auction with a purse value of INR 51 crore out of the total INR 120 crores, having spent INR 69 crore on their retentions.
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