Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore discussed the challenges his team faced while deciding their player retentions ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction. KKR has retained six players: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy.
KKR won their third title in IPL 2024 under Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy, but Iyer, along with other prominent players such as Mitchell Starc, Phil Salt, Venkatesh Iyer, and Nitish Rana, have been released.
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Mysore expressed the difficulty in reducing the retention list from around 10-11 players to six. He stated, “Obviously the number of retentions do feel less, because we first build a squad and try to put all pieces in place in order to compete. And when you compete, and particularly in our case, thankfully, we won our third championship, and after that, it becomes even more difficult, because you really want to keep the squad that you have carefully built, who are also the defending champions.”
Narine has been with KKR for 12 years, Russell for 10 years, Chakravarthy since 2019, and Singh since 2018. Rana has been with the team for three years and Ramandeep joined last year, making a significant impact.
Mysore also mentioned the strategic thinking about the auction, saying, “The no brainers would have been maybe 10 or 11 players, but trying to trim that down to six was very challenging, because it is about the players that you have built an equation with and who have done fantastic for KKR.”
In September, KKR appointed former West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo as their new mentor. Bravo retired from international cricket in 2021 and ended his IPL playing career last year. He has since transitioned into coaching, working with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Afghanistan team. His role with KKR marks his second coaching position in the IPL.