“I'm confused by what happened”

Indian Premier League (IPL) winning captain Shreyas Iyer spoke about his departure from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after a productive 2024 season. The skipper was not among the players retained for the franchise as he entered the auction pool to be picked up by the Punjab Kings (PBKS).

Most expected the partnership between Iyer and KKR to grow further as he guided the franchise to its third title, ending a 10-year wait. However, when the three-year cycle was up and storage had to be done, the team took a different path.

Instead, people like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh were detained. KKR was initially in the race to bring back the player but had to opt out after the INR 10 crore mark due to limited purse.

Iyer recalled that there was no 'concrete effort' KKR regarding storage.

“We had a conversation right after the IPL championship. But there was a gap of several months and no concrete effort was made to have a retention conversation. I was confused about what happened. So, due to a lack of communication, here we are. A situation where we mutually parted ways, and the long and short of it is that's it,” Iyer said at the Idea Exchange (via The Indian Express).

Former KKR pacer Mitchell Starc also complained about the lack of communication with the management as the retention period approached.

'I had to call' – Shreyas Iyer on return to auction pool for IPL 2025 mega auction

Iyer was one of the most wanted players in the mega auction. His batting skills and leadership experience made him one of the most expensive buys at the event. He eventually reunited with coach Ricky Ponting BKS paid INR 26.75 crore for his services.

Iyer said he had to take the auction route with no update on his fate.

“Yes, I'm obviously disappointed because when you don't have a specific line of communication and you find out about everything a week before the save date, obviously there's something missing. So I had to call,” Iyer said (according to the source cited above). .

The right-handed batsman was recently named the captain of Punjab Kings (PBKS). This is the third franchise he will lead after Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders.