With the IPL 2025 mega auction retention deadline coming on October 31, it's the time where all ten teams will be firming up their retention plans. Kolkata Knight Riders, the IPL 2024 winners, are also in the process of finalizing their retention list.
But sources have told IANS that the retention status of their title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer is lining on unsure currently, as other players like West Indies duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, along with middle-order batter Rinku Singh, wrist-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy and uncapped fast-bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana, who recently got a call-up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, are ahead in contention of being retained by the franchise.
While Narine and Russell were at their all-round best as the franchise's stalwarts, Chakravarthy was a key figure in the spin-bowling department, picking up 21 wickets at an economy rate of 8.04. Those performances paved his way for being back into the Indian team for the T20Is against Bangladesh this month and is selected for next month's South Africa series.
Rinku, despite making only 168 runs in 14 games this year, has been with the team since 2018 and has been credited as a find of the franchise ever since he found his groove as a finisher. Rana, who has been with the franchise since 2022, had a breakthrough 2024 season by picking 19 wickets.
On the other hand, Shreyas scored 351 runs in 14 innings at a strike-rate of 146.86 while leading KKR to their third IPL title in May this year. The right-handed Mumbai batter has been with the team since 2022, though he missed the 2023 season due to a lower-back injury.
If circumstances cause Iyer to enter the mega auction pool, then franchises in search of a captain will have a chance of roping in Iyer to their respective sides and give him the leadership role. To be fair, Kolkata were bound to have a problem of plenty in terms of retentions mainly because of the players they have.
Apart from the above-mentioned six names, KKR also had the services of Mitchell Starc, Phil Salt, Venkatesh Iyer and an uncapped player in all-rounder Ramandeep Singh, who recently got a call-up to the Indian team for the T20Is against South Africa next month. As per the IPL retention rules, each team can retain a maximum of five capped players and a maximum of two uncapped players.
(With inputs from IANS)
