IPL 2025 Auction: Kolkata Knight Riders squad analysis
Kolkata Knight Riders had retained their core in Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, and Ramandeep Singh. While they had one of the best rosters of retained players, the same could not be said about their auction. The three-time champions spent heavily on Venkatesh Iyer and signed him for a whopping INR 23.75 crore, which arguably ruined a majority part of their auction plans.
They were desperate to have Venkatesh back for the sake of continuity but in the process, they lessened their purchasing power significantly for the remainder of the auction and lost multiple bidding wars in the IPL 2025 mega-auction. They got Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anukul Roy, and Vaibhav Arora from their title-winning campaign but the team needed a quality Indian middle-order batter, which is lacking.
Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana’s absence will be felt as the duo of Manish and Ajinkya Rahane may not be able to play the same brand of cricket. Meanwhile, they have signed Anrich Nortje, who often struggles with injury and in the last year, the South Africa international has struggled with form as well. Spencer Johnson, however, is an excellent addition while Harshit and Vaibhav will be key for the team. The KKR also managed to get two multi-utility players in the form of left-hander wicketkeeper bat Quinton de Kock and off-spinning all-rounder Moeen Ali.
Current squad strength: 21
Indian players: 13
Overseas players: 8
Retained players (6): Rinku Singh (13 Cr), Andre Russell (12 Cr), Sunil Narine (12 Cr), Varun Chakaravarthy (12 Cr), Harshit Rana (4 Cr), Ramandeep Singh (4 Cr)
Players bought in the auction (15): Angkrish Raghuvanshi (3 Cr), Quinton de Kock (3.60 Cr), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (2 Cr), Venkatesh Iyer (23.75 Cr), Mayank Markande (30 L), Anrich Nortje (6.50 Cr), Vaibhav Arora (1.80 Cr), Ajinkya Rahane (1.5 Cr), Manish Pandey (75L), Luvnith Sisodia (30L), Anukul Roy (40L), Rovman Powell (1.5 Cr), Moeen Ali (2 Cr), Umran Malik (75L), Spencer Johnson (2.80 Cr)
