Picture Credit: X/IPL
Venkatesh Iyer, a find of the Indian Premier League (IPL), turned out to be a surprise star in the IPL 2025 mega auction as he saw the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) splashing massive INR 23.75 Crore to get him back in the purple. The batting all-rounder, who was released by KKR ahead of the mega auction after being bought for INR 8 Cr, got the bidding war starting with KKR, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
Although the war heated up with paddles being raised from both teams, but as the bid hit INR 6 Crore mark, LSG dropped out of the race. Although, it proved to be a steal for KKR when the paddles were raise for INR 7.75 Cr, but Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had different plans as they got the war going, with the price skyrocketing to INR 19.25 Crore.
He gave an ultimatum that, ‘If you don’t pick me, I will be very sad’: Venky Mysore reveals
After some back-and forth bids, the defending champions finally acquired his services for INR 23.75 Crore. With this, he also became the fourth most expensive player in IPL auction history after Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Mitchell Starc. After getting him back in their ranks, KKR CEO Venky Mysore opened up on the conversation he had with the Indian batter.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, KKR CEO Venky Mysore revealed, “For us it was about trying 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 Anrich Nortje (INR 6.50 Cr) that we’ve picked, it balances off in many ways. On an overall basis, it all works out.”
“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 terrific guy in 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,” Venky Mysore concluded, putting an end to the speculations of KKR going so big on him.
Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2025 full squad
Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Mayank Markande, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Rovman Powell, Spencer Johnson, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Umran Malik
