'Got their new captain' - Twitter reacts as Kolkata Knight Riders pocket Shreyas Iyer for INR 12.25 Crores
As many as five franchises battled out for Shreyas Iyer in the mega auction.
Shreyas Iyer was expected to top the charts for the most expensive players in IPL 2022 mega auction and he was placed in the marquee set for a base price of 2 Crores. Indeed, he bagged a huge sum of money in the mega auction and RCB started the race for Iyer. Delhi came in with a fight as well while Kolkata entered the fray a little later at 6.75 Crores. Delhi swayed out at 9.75 Crores while Gujarat Titans entered at 10 Crores. KKR kept bidding for the right-hander and finally bought him Iyer for a whopping amount of 12.25 Crores.
The right-hander was retained by Delhi Capitals ahead of the previous mega auction in 2018, and the former captained the franchise to the playoffs in IPL 2019 and IPL 2020. However, the Delhi franchise opted to go in with Rishabh Pant’s captaincy after Iyer had to suffer a shoulder injury during the first phase of IPL 2021 and they did not retain him ahead of mega auctions for IPL 2022. KKR were one of the fewer sides in the IPL that wanted a captain and picking Iyer is expected to serve them well in the long run.
Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy potential
Iyer is one of the better captaincy materials in IPL and has a tremendous success rate as well. The 27-year-old has 2375 runs at an average of 31.7 and he can bat at any position from number three to number six which makes him a versatile batter. He is brilliant against spin and can demolish bowling attacks when he gets going making him one of the go-to guys in the mega auction.
A lot of franchises have been wanting Iyer as he ticks a lot of boxes in terms of the strong Indian contingent, versatility in batting, brilliant fielding and is deemed to be the future captain for India. He has been in good form of late with an 80 run knock in the recent third ODI against West Indies the top three failed to contribute and managed to bail India out of a tough situation
The Mumbaikar can be explosive towards the back end of the innings and has had an impressive start to his Test career as well with a century on debut. India’s long search for number four in ODIs was finally solved in the form of Iyer after the 2019 World Cup and he continuously had two brilliant seasons in IPL 2019 and IPL 2020 scoring more than 400 runs.
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Here’s how Twitter reacted:
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