Venkatesh Iyer was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping sum of INR 23.75 Cr on day one of the IPL 2025 auction. The two-day event is being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25, 2024.
In a brave and surprising move, the Shah Rukh Khan-owned club elected not to retain their 2024 IPL-winning skipper Shreyas Iyer at the super auction and instead engaged in an all-out bidding war with Royal Challengers Bengaluru to secure Venkatesh.
Venkatesh, who has played nine T20Is and two ODIs for India, became the third-most expensive buy in the IPL mega auction, trailing only Shreyas (Punjab Kings, Rs 26.75 crore) and Rishabh Pant (Lucknow Super Giants, Rs 27 crore).
Talking about the same, Venkatesh Iyer said that in case he is approached to captain the KKR franchise, he would love to embrace the opportunity.
“I had the opportunity to captain the side in Nitish Rana’s absence when he was unfortunately injured, and I was the vice-captain as well. I’ve always believed that captaincy is just a tag, but leadership is about creating an environment where everyone feels they can play for this team and contribute. If given the responsibility, I would be more than happy to take it on. Absolutely (I’m ready for it).
Together, we will aim to defend the championship and continue our winning campaign. Thank you very much for picking me in your squad,” Venkatesh Iyer stated after being picked by KKR.
The hefty price tag made him one of the biggest surprises of Sunday’s auction and he could not thank the franchise enough.
“Thank you, KKR, for trusting me and showing so much belief in me. I’m extremely delighted to be part of Kolkata Knight Riders again. To be honest, I’m at a loss for words, but I’m elated to be part of the KKR team once again.
The KKR coach (Chandrakant Pandit) was also my coach in Madhya Pradesh. We were discussing how I felt nervous about coming back to KKR. But again, it’s a message of the franchise’s focus on winning championships and player development and how much it values its players. I’m thrilled to play for KKR again and happy they’ve shown so much confidence in me,” the all-rounder from MP said.
KKR CEO Venky Mysore has stated that Iyer had told them that he would be very sad if they didn’t buy him in the IPL 2025 auction.
"For us, it was about trying to keep our core. We've kept six players and brought 2-3 players back from last year. That was always the kind of thinking and as far as he (Venkatesh) is concerned we definitely didn't want to find ourselves in a situation where we may not be able to bring him back.
But it always balances itself. When you look at Quinton de Kock (INR 3.60 crore) and Nortje (INR 6.50 crore) that we've picked, it balances off in many ways. On an overall basis, it all works out," Venky Mysore said, as per ESPNcricinfo.
"They've proven on the field what they can do. You saw in a championship year, and one year we went to the final as well, in 2021. He (Venkatesh) was highly instrumental and a terrific guy on the team. He had clearly given us an ultimatum that, 'If you don't pick me, I will be very sad'. So we didn't want him to be sad, and we're also very happy," he added.
Before the auction, KKR retained Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, and Ramandeep Singh.
In the mega auction, the franchise has so far acquired Venkatesh Iyer, Vaibhav Arora, Anrich Nortje, Quinton de Kock, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramanullah Gurbaz and Mayank Markande.
(News 18
