IPL25
Follow UsThe Kolkata Knight Riders won the Indian Premier League 2024. Still, alas, they had to press the reset button before the mega auction ahead of the 2025 season, and they lost skipper Shreyas Iyer in the process.
They retained Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and their X factor, Varun Chakravarthy, ahead of the auction. However, they suffer from a lack of an experienced skipper option with a CV boasting of an illustrious international of IPL leadership career.
They failed to acquire any such player and, in such a situation, will have to depend on a resurgent Ajinkya Rahane, the dependable Venkatesh Iyer, or their talisman Sunil Narine.
Ajinkya Rahane
Rahane is in a rich vein of form with the bat in the shortest format, having scored 469 runs at an average of 58.63 and a strike rate of 164.6 since the last IPL in domestic cricket.
He also proved his leadership credentials in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), where he led Mumbai to a hard-fought title.
KKR acquired his services for just 1.5 crore in the auction and might make him their skipper in the 2025 season.
Venkatesh Iyer
Iyer has been a player groomed closely at the KKR setup. It is where he gained a reputation as a handy pace bowler as well, along with being an explosive batting option. That’s how he became an India player as well, where he was seriously considered as a replacement option for Hardik Pandya.
KKR also showed their faith in him in the auction by shelling out 23.75 crore for the allrounder. If they choose to go for a home grown option with a stable head on his shoulders, they already have the Iyer from Madhya Pradesh to don the skipper’s hat.
Sunil Narine
Narine in the IPL is synonymous with the KKR purple and gold. It is where his batting was unleashed at the top of the order, and he became a different level of T20 player. It not only raised his value as a cricketer in the shortest format, it also allowed him to earn a lot of extra bucks.
Over the years, he has become KKR’s talisman of sorts through his multiple action changes. With his huge experience, he can certainly be considered as a skipper option in the lack of experienced international options.
