Aakash Chopra On KKR Retaining Shreyas Iyer: Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra has shared his thoughts about how defending IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders should approach the upcoming mega auction. More specifically, should the franchise use their no. 1 retention spot for captain Shreyas Iyer, which would cost them at least Rs. 18 crore?
KKR had a surprising IPL 2024. Not many expected them to do too well this season. Not only did they rock the league and finish first on the table, but they would go on to win six games in a row to win the title, defeating the Sunrisers Hyderabad fairly comfortably in the final.
At the helm of the Knight Riders, the third title win was captain Shreyas Iyer. While he was not the team’s outstanding performer that season, he did captain the team to the title, which is something not a lot of captains have been able to do in the history of this league.
But with that being said, many would say that Iyer had an underwhelming season in 2023. In the 14 matches he played, the 30-year-old scored 351 runs at an average of 39 and a strike rate of 146.86. While that would be a decent season any other year, IPL 2024 saw teams regularly score 200+ runs, especially the Kolkata Knight Riders.
For context, Shreyas is Kolkata’s fourth-highest run-scorer this season. But more importantly, his strike rate was the worst in the team for batters with over 100 runs, of which there were eight.
This, combined with his recent exclusion from the national team, has made many suggest that the skipper should not be the first retention by the franchise, which would cost them Rs. 18 crore. IPL’s new retention rules allow each team to retain or RTM (Right to Match) six players. The first player on the retention list would be worth at least that price.
So it is understandable why some people do not want Iyer to be in that spot. After all, he was not the most valuable player for the team in 2024.
Aakash Chopra On KKR Retaining Shreyas Iyer
However, Aakash Chopra has a different point of view. In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Chopra suggested that the team needs to maintain their continuity by retaining their captain after mentor Gautam Gambhir’s departure.
“You want to firstly retain the captain, who is Shreyas Iyer. If 18 crores go, let them go because you won’t get a captain. He is your winning captain. If Gautam (Gambhir) isn’t there, retain your captain to maintain some continuity. There is no doubt that you should retain Shreyas Iyer,” he said.
Aakash then went on to argue that the team can get their captain for Rs. 18 crore or under, but a franchise should not do that and should rather show trust in their captain, especially one who won the league last season, he continued.
“You might get Shreyas Iyer for 18 crores using the RTM, but never do that with the captain because eventually this game is played by humans, and humans have hearts and thereby emotions. Who will understand emotions better than Khan sahab (Shahrukh Khan)? So I feel he won’t allow Shreyas Iyer to go.”
While the exact dates for the IPL 2025 auction are not known, it is understood that teams would need to submit their list of retained players sometime in the next two months.
Get the Latest Cricket Updates at IceCric.News. Also, Follow Our Social Media for Live Updates – Facebook & Instagram.
