IPL 2025: 3 Players KKR should have gone for instead of Venkatesh Iyer at Mega Auction

Kolkata Knight Riders spent INR 23.75 crore to acquire the services of Venkatesh Iyer in the IPL 2024 mega-auction. They invested almost half their money in the Indian all-rounder and that might have slightly affected their auction plans as the three-time champions lost a few key bidding wars in the latter part of the auction. Notably, KKR were the first team to bid for the cricketer and later, Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru joined, but the franchise didn’t give up.

Was it a wise decision to sign Iyer for INR 23.75 crore? That will be known when the season kicks off in March 2025. However, there are other quality players that KKR could have invested in rather than Venkatesh. Here are three possible names that the franchise could have targetted and would have cost them less in the IPL auction.

3. Phil Salt

Royal Challengers Bengaluru signed Phil Salt for INR 11.50 crore. The England international had a stunning season for KKR in the last edition, scoring 435 runs in 12 matches at a strike rate of 182. He was one of the big reasons behind KKR’s success in the last edition of the cash-rich league. The franchise was expected to retain him but they decided against it.

Later, they were expected to show interest in getting Salt in the auction, which KKR did, but lost the bidding war to Bengaluru. Instead of Venkatesh, the franchise could have shown interest in Salt, who proved his value at the top of the order and his opening partnership with Sunil Narine was extremely vital as the duo had five 50+ and one 100+ partnership stand in the last edition.

Venkatesh was valuable in the middle order but players such as Rinku Singh and Andre Russell can bat at four and five respectively. So, KKR could have gone for an opener, which looks slightly fragile as consistency can be an issue for Quinton de Kock and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. On top of that, Narine barely played a good knock since the IPL 2024 ended.