After an aggressive bidding war between five different franchises, the Kolkata Knight Riders managed to bag the services of Shreyas Iyer at the IPL 2022 mega-auction – for a big amount of 12.25 crore!
Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are looking for a potential captain, started the bidding and Delhi Capitals, Iyer’s former team, joined in. Lucknow and Kolkata were the next teams to chime in followed by Gujarat who raised their paddle with a 10 crore bid.
However, KKR were keen on gaining the services of Shreyas Iyer, stretching the bidding war to 12.25 crore as Gujrat pulled out.
Shreyas Iyer is likely to be appointed as KKR’s new captain as well – despite KKR also rebuying Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins. After Delhi had decided that they will continue with Rishabh Pant as their skipper, Iyer had decided to go in the auction pool. Bagging over a dozen crores now in the mega-auction, Iyer is likely to lead the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise.
Iyer captained Delhi to two playoff spots in 2019 and 2020 – taking Delhi to their maiden IPL final in 2020 where they lost to Mumbai Indians in the final.
As a batsman, Iyer has proven his abilities in the IPL and for India. He has averaged over 30 in every IPL season since 2015 although his mediocre strike rate remains in doubt. Iyer’s struggles against high pace are known, but also known is his explosiveness against spinners. In the middle-overs, Iyer is capable of rotating the strike while finding regular boundaries before hitting big blows in the death overs.
Fans reacted wildly over Shreyas Iyer being bought by KKR who had retained the likes of Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Venkatesh Iyer. Fans hailed this buy by KKR when they expected Iyer to go for more.
12.25 for @ShreyasIyer15 means that @KKRiders have got their new captain. Good buy! #IPLMegaAuction #IPLMegaAuction2022
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) February 12, 2022
After a bidding war, Shreyas Iyer is coming to KKR ?#IPLAuction
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) February 12, 2022
KKR captain @ShreyasIyer15 ??
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 12, 2022
Two brilliant pick ups at excellent prices for KKR at the IPL auctions. Shreyas Iyer and Pat Cummins are steals at their prices and both possible captains.
— Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) February 12, 2022
KKR shelling out Rs 12.25 crore on Shreyas Iyer must be bad news for Eoin Morgan’s hopes of an IPL contract: Iyer likely to captain and KKR’s remaining budget has already taken a major hit
— Matt Roller (@mroller98) February 12, 2022
Shreyas Iyer to KKR, regardless of the feeling he is a Knight now and we must support him ? pic.twitter.com/3EiY9Dgs68
— Sohom ᴷᴷᴿ (@AwaaraHoon) February 12, 2022
BIG ONE! Shreyas Iyer goes to Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 12.25 crore#TATAIPLAuction #IPLMegaAuction
— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) February 12, 2022
We flogged 12.25 for Iyer pic.twitter.com/NSwuqkw1Iq
— Arka (@utd_arka) February 12, 2022
KKR gets their captain, Shreyas Iyer at 12.25 cr. #IPLAuction
— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) February 12, 2022
The competition between Gujarat and Kolkata to buy iyer was intense . #IPLMegaAuction2022 pic.twitter.com/hoNEa7E1n6
— Hunटरर
? (@nickhunterr) February 12, 2022
? (@nickhunterr) *rcb to other teams after buying faf and not iyer #IPL2022Auction pic.twitter.com/Q9MTe6HjHO
— Vedant (@thatcrickettguy) February 12, 2022
Seems like #KKR have found their captain… Unlikely that Iyer will be the most expensive player in this auction. #IPLMegaAuction2022
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) February 12, 2022
https://twitter.com/imAmanDubey/status/1492400011661156355
Iyer at the end of auction:#IPL2022Auction pic.twitter.com/vy2OaW7Xgc
— Kaush (@iamkaushh) February 12, 2022
Excellent Smart Auction so far. I was fairly sure Iyer wont go past 14 etc. The prices are pretty conservative so far considering the main auction is yet to happen.
— Gaurav Sundararaman (@gaurav_sundar) February 12, 2022
Shreyas Iyer is a good deal for KKR at 12 crore.
They got a Captain, good batsman and future player#IPLMegaAuction2022— Cricket fan Girl (@AfshaCricket) February 12, 2022
