Hyderabad: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore asserted that the franchise was ready to retain Shreyas Iyer as one of their top retentions for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.
On Thursday, the Knight Riders named Rinku Singh (Rs 13), Sunil Narine (Rs 12 crore), Andre Russell (Rs 12 crore), Varun Chakravarthy (Rs 12 crore), Harshit Rana (Rs 4 crore) and Ramandeep Singh (Rs 4 crore) as their retentions for the IPL 2025.
He is now an IPL winning captain 💜
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 27, 2024
And naturally, Shreyas Iyer is out of words 😁
Hear from the @KKRiders skipper on what it means to enter an elusive club 🏆👏 - By @28anand & @ameyatilak
WATCH 🎥🔽 #TATAIPL | #KKRvSRH | #Final | #TheFinalCall | @ShreyasIyer15
But Shreyas’, who led KKR to their third title this year, name did not feature in the list. Under his leadership, the Knights ended their 10-year-long wait to get their hands on the trophy.
Mysore explained that there are several factors that need to fall in place for a team and player to agree on captaincy duties.
Here are your retained Knights 💜
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) October 31, 2024
Next Stop: #TATAIPLAuction 💰🔨 pic.twitter.com/fvr1kwWoYn
“The interesting thing about retention is that there are so many aspects to it and forces as play. But what is fundamental to a retention that most people sometimes don’t understand that it’s a matter of mutually agreeing. It’s not a one-sided right that a franchise has. The player also has to consider various factors and agree,” Mysore told Rev Sports in an interview.
“Sometimes along the line that agreement doesn’t happen because of various factors; money or somebody wants to test their value or whatever it is. That influences a decision as well, eventually, but he was No.1 on our list,” Mysore said.
In the 2022 mega auction, the KKR signed Shreyas for whopping Rs 12.25 crore and made him the skipper, replacing former England captain Eoin Morgan, who helped them finish as the runners-up in 2021. However, Shreyas had to miss the IPL 2023 because of the injury. In 29 matches for KKR, Shreyas scored 752 runs at an average of 34.18 and a strike-rate of 140.03 with five fifties to his name.
“He’s captain and we have to build around that leadership and we picked him in 2022 specifically for that. Unfortunately, he was injured in 2023. The moment he came back, he got his captaincy back. He was an integral part, did a terrific job and I enjoyed a personal rapport with him. But at the end of the day, people also have to make their own decisions and decide on what’s best for them and the direction that want to go,” Mysore added.
