Shreyas Iyer is ending his relationship with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the next 2025 season. The reports claimed that a few discussions were going on between the individual and the team management, but a tough negotiation forced the defending champions to take themselves away from the leader.
That confirms that when the Knights submit the list of retained players to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on the evening of October 31, Shreyas Iyer won’t be among the six players. However, they will still have the option of going with the Right-to-match card (RTM), but that’s a different scenario.
The franchise generally, prefers Indian captains in their circuit, leaving a few past seasons, but few of the other teams are not in require of the captains from the new edition of the event, which includes Lucknow Super Giants and the Punjab Kings.
Shreyas Iyer to leave KKR franchise despite winning IPL 2024 season
Shreyas Iyer ended the decade-long drought of a title for the Kolkata side, where he scored 351 runs in 14 innings of the 2024 season at an average of 39 and a strike rate of around 150 with the help of two half-centuries at a best score of unbeaten 58 runs.
However, the IPL inclusions came depending on a few aspects of current form, fitness issues, and the international status of the individual before the franchise takes a call on that very player. It’s not a secret, but it has been driven by serious data.
The current salary of the league for the batter is INR 12.25 crore as the price of the 2022 auction, when he thumped 401 runs in 14 games at an average of 30.85 and a strike rate of little under 135. The following season didn’t find him in the auction due to a back injury that required surgery.
Shreyas Iyer has cracked 3127 runs overall in 116 IPL games at an average of 32.24 and a strike rate of 127.47 with the help of 21 half-centuries at a best score of 96. He is currently not holding the central contract of the BCCI, having missed a Ranji game last season. The debate that has transformed into an issue and has come under the notice of BCCI is whether a player who is engaged in the contract of a franchise can have discussions with other sides.
The negotiations can be made by the player agents, but in no way a significant amount could be predicted for a player in the mega auction. The question stands how can a player be sure of earning a major bid at the auction, despite the dynamics of these being unpredictable?
The answer remains in the new RTM rule where a franchise can desire to increase the price of the player at any value, but only if that franchise holds the RTM card option. There is a possibility that they may elect not to use it.
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There can be one of his aspects in the auction procedure of Shreyas Iyer. If he enters the auction with INR 25 crore and the biding close to INR 15 crore, the competing team can raise the price to INR 25 crore, but in that case, the RTM holder (Knight Riders in this case) can exercise the RTM card. Without that, the price will be low.
The toss-up for the three-time champions regarding the auction is between the premier West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer. With the Jamaican, there is always an issue with a potential injury, but he brings value and impact to the format. In all likelihood, the Riders seem to be moving towards the veteran all-rounder.