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Kolkata Knight Riders' title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer will be among the marquee players who will be going under the hammer in the Indian Premier League Auction 2025. Iyer led KKR to the title in IPL 2024, but in a surprising move, he has been released by the franchise ahead of the mega auction, set to take place at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25. India's cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar feels that KKR might go for Iyer in the bidding war. He added that Delhi Capitals, a side Iyer has captained in the past, will also try to rope in the right-handed batter.
Notably, DC have also released their captain Rishabh Pant ahead of the mega auction. Gavaskar feels that the franchise will try to retain him at the auction through Right to Match (RTM) option.
"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," Gavaskar said on Star Sports' show 'Game Plan'.
"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. 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 said.
KKR retained six players - Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy ahead of the upcoming mega auction.
Rinku is KKR's top retention with a sum of Rs 13 crore, while Varun, Sunil, and Russell were retained for Rs 12 crore each. Harshit and Ramandeep were signed under the uncapped player category for Rs 4 crore each.