Sunil Gavaskar believes the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) could target Shreyas Iyer again at the IPL 2025 auction. He pointed out that the Kolkata-based franchise may not have been able to retain the title-winning captain before the auction due to a disagreement over his price.
Ahead of the auction, KKR held on to Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Harshit Rana, and Ramandeep Singh. They still have a budget of ₹51 crore to complete their squad.
On the Star Sports show *Game Plan*, Gavaskar shared his thoughts on Indian captains who were let go by their teams. Regarding Shreyas, he commented:
“When KKR won last year (IPL 2024), Shreyas Iyer was the captain. As I said earlier for Rishabh Pant as well, at times, there could be a disagreement on the fees.”
“However, I also feel once Shreyas Iyer comes into the auction, KKR might also bid for his services. If KKR don’t bid, I feel Delhi will do that,” the former India captain added.
Shreyas scored a total of 351 runs at a strike rate of 146.86 across 14 innings in IPL 2024. He led the Delhi Capitals (DC) to the IPL 2020 final before being acquired by KKR at the IPL 2022 auction.
“Delhi will likely use the RTM card or bring Rishabh Pant back at the auction”- Sunil Gavaskar
On the same show, Sunil Gavaskar suggested that Delhi Capitals will likely aim to bring back Rishabh Pant, who was their top scorer with 446 runs at a strike rate of 155.40 from 13 innings in IPL 2024, during the auction.
“Delhi will want him because they will also need to find a captain if Rishabh Pant isn’t in their team. So I feel Delhi will definitely try to use the RTM card or bring Rishabh Pant back into their team at the auction,” he reasoned.
The former cricketer-turned-commentator believes that both Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will be keen on acquiring KL Rahul at the auction.
“I feel RCB might try to bring KL Rahul to Bengaluru. Chennai Super Kings can also try to bring him with them. So I feel these two southern franchises, Hyderabad might also do that, but Chennai and Bengaluru will definitely try for Rahul’s services,” Gavaskar observed.
Rahul was released by the Lucknow Super Giants ahead of the auction. With 520 runs at a strike rate of 136.12 from 14 innings, the wicketkeeper-batter was the highest run-scorer for the Lucknow-based franchise in IPL 2024.
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