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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are unlikely to retain their title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer and star allrounder Andre Russell ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and uncapped fast bowler Harshit Rana are set to be the franchise's four retained players. They are also unlikely to retain Mitchell Starc, who they had bought for the record price of INR 24.75 crore at the IPL 2024 auction. Starc had a poor league phase in IPL 2024 before playing vital roles - 3 for 34 and 2 for 14 - in KKR's victories in Qualifier 1 and the final. There is also a possibility that KKR will retain a second uncapped player in Ramandeep Singh, an explosive batter in the lower middle order. If they do so, then they will have only one right-to-match option left to use at the auction on a capped player, in case they want to buy back either Iyer, Russell, or Starc. October 31 is the deadline by which the ten franchises have to submit their lists of retained players to the IPL. The teams have been allowed to retain up to six players ahead of the mega auction before the 2025 season, of which a maximum of five can be capped internationals and two can be uncapped players. While the IPL has set minimum deductions from the auction purse for each player retained - INR 18 crore for the first player, INR 14 crore for the second, INR 11 crore for the third, INR 18 crore for the fourth, INR 14 crore for the fifth, and INR 4 crore for an uncapped player - the franchises are free to pay more or less than those amounts to their retained players. While the individual amounts for each of KKR's likely retentions are not yet known, they will lose at least INR 47 crore for four players (including one uncapped) or INR 51 crore for five players (including two uncapped). The big development in the KKR camp is the possible release of Iyer, their captain, and Russell, who has been with them since IPL 2014. Iyer was their most expensive purchase at the 2022 mega auction (INR 12.25 crore - $1.633 million approx. at the time) when KKR were on the hunt for a new captain. Russell had been retained for INR 12 crore ahead of that auction. Iyer led KKR to the IPL title in the 2024 season, scoring 351 runs at a strike rate of nearly 147, their first triumph since 2014. While he will be optimistic about attracting sizeable bids at the mega auction considering a few franchises might need a captain and a top Indian batter, Russell will also be a huge draw. He scored 222 runs at a strike rate of 185 last season and took 19 wickets, three of which came in the IPL final. Among the players retained, Narine, Rinku and Varun have all played vital roles for KKR over the last few seasons. Narine, who was retained for INR 6 crore ($722,000 approx. then) in 2022, was the Most Valuable Player in 2024 for his explosiveness at the top of the order and his 17 wickets at an economy rate of 6.69. Varun, who joined the franchise in 2020 and was retained in 2022 for INR 8 crore ($1.066 million approx. then), has 41 wickets (8.09 economy) in the last two seasons, the most by any bowler. Rinku, whose IPL performances catapulted him into the India T20I team, has a strike rate of 207.97 since 2022. Rana is emerging as promising fast bowler and is part of India's Test squad for the upcoming tour of Australia, while Ramandeep's IPL and domestic performances earned him a spot in India's squad for the recent Emerging Players Asia Cup in Oman.
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