3 current players KKR can choose as captain if Shreyas Iyer goes to IPL 2025 auction ft. Rinku SinghÂ
Who would be at a bigger loss if Shreyas Iyer leaves Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of the IPL 2025 auction?
If reports are to be believed, a lot of franchises are courting Iyerand are willing to pay him big amounts if he goes under the hammer. But that'd be a massive risk for his career, for he'll have to build it from scratch at a new team. He will also have the burden of expectations that would come with winning the title in IPL 2024, which he didn't have at KKR.
At KKR, he seemed to enjoy the trust of the coach and the owners and even commanded the respect of his seniors at the franchise. He also got the freedom of flexibility for his batting position. Neither of those would be guaranteed at any other team.
For KKR, it would not just be losing the most experienced captain of the tournament to a rival straight after winning the title. It would be losing the captain on top of losing the decorated mentor, the batting coach, the head of the academy, and the fielding coach when the team was craving stability.
They would lose the best possible captaincy option because Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni have stepped down and title-winning captains would probably not come in the auction. This would also mean that all other options would be, simply, worse. Not to forget how much Shreyas meant to the team after years of captaincy issues in the post-Gautam Gambhir era.
So, while Shreyas' possible move away would be fraught with risk, KKR would be dealt with a straightforward finishing blow, which would be quite hard to recover from. The best measure, then, would be to perhaps look inwards and not depend on the auction to find a possible captaincy replacement.
Below, we have created a short list of three such options. We have limited them to Indians. This is because after how Eoin Morgan's captaincy phase during the time of his worst-ever batting form turned out, it's unlikely that the team would go that route.
Let's check them out:
#3 Rinku Singh
Let's start with a left-field choice. Rinku Singh was looked down upon for years before he finally broke through in 2022. Now he's an India regular, an extremely popular and loved character, and looks destined to be the team's finisher for years to come.
There's not much captaincy experience to bank upon. Choosing him would be going the traditional way of the skipper being the most promising sure-shot starting young player of the best 11. It's a gamble but the kind which has worked for so many teams and captains in the IPL and outside as well.
Rinku is already one of the faces of KKR, someone they would never release in the auction. He won't need any adjusting to the environment and would be able to follow the instructions of the coaching set-up while inspiring the team with his batting.
Rinku has gone through various struggles to reach this stage and has been loyal to KKR, and vice-versa. Hence, he should be up there in the list of players the franchise can build their identity around. If Shreyas goes, this could be the perfect time for someone younger to take over and build a new identity alongside Chandrakant Pandit and DJ Bravo.
#2 Nitish Rana
Nitish Rana is nowhere to be seen in any retention talks about KKR. One of the major reasons for that is that he didn't play most of the title-winning season last year due to injury. Moreover, his replacement, the teenager, Angkrish Raghuvanshi did quite well.
However, don't be surprised if the management is looking at Rana as one of the captaincy options. After all, he took over a depleted team in IPL 2023 when Shreyas was injured and kept the team at seventh.
That included some admirable wins away from home. It was an excellent result considering that the Eden Gardens pitch was entirely opposite to KKR's needs as a spin-heavy team composition. Rana's on-field leadership was not too dissimilar to Shreyas either.
He is KKR through and through - he has already spoken about how he'd love to be retained. He also has more experience in domestic cricket and IPL than a lot of his KKR teammates. Picking someone who has led before would smoothen the transition for everyone.
Finally, even if KKR prefer other players over him for their limited number of retentions, he's unlikely to go for an exorbitant amount at the auction. The team would then be able to get him back. If Shreyas leaves, Rana will have a straightforward vacant spot to fill in the playing 11.
#1 Venkatesh Iyer
It's another left-field choice because Venkatesh Iyer doesn't have any notable captaincy experience and won't be among KKR's first three retention choices either. However, there are a few things going his way.
Firstly, he has prior experience of playing under Chandrakant Pandit in the Madhya Pradesh state team. Hence, their partnership shouldn't take much time to get together. It was also under Pandit that Venkatesh discovered his mojo back. He developed into a complete cricketer instead of the one-dimensional opener that he broke through as.
Secondly, he has shown a pattern of standing up in adversity for KKR as evident by his last season. His best knocks came in the final, the first Qualifier, and the home and away games against the Mumbai Indians, KKR's biggest nemesis.
Venkatesh has looked different and better than most of his teammates under pressure, which is always a good sign. He, too, has a kind of role where he can contribute in all three departments and lead from the front. He also has been with KKR for long enough to have the admiration and respect of the club's players and stakeholders.
It would be a big gamble but so was picking Shreyas and so would be choosing any other lesser-known name from the auction. It's just about whether KKR want to take that gamble with someone who has been there and done that for them, or pick someone from the outside.