IPL 2025 Mega Auction, Venkatesh Iyer at KKR: The mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season is taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This auction will also take place the next day (November 25). Meanwhile, star opener and all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer created a stir. Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team used all their strength to buy him.
KKR bought Venkatesh with a bid of Rs 23.75 crore. Let us tell you that this star player played for the KKR team only until last season. But this time KKR did not retain Venkatesh. In such a situation, KKR had to use all its strength to buy Venkatesh in the auction.
There was a war between these teams over Venkatesh.
The Kolkata team was competing with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Let us tell you that Venkatesh’s base price was Rs 2 crore. KKR also made the first offer for him. After this, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) team came into competition with KKR, but this team was left out after making the last bid of Rs 7.50 crore. After this RCB came in.
But in the end, Kolkata brought Venkatesh back into their team with a bid of Rs 23.75 crore. Now the important thing is why the Kolkata team has paid so much money for this player? The answer to this is Venkatesh’s past performance.
Venkatesh has scored fifties in two IPL finals
Kolkata had won the 2024 IPL title. Then in the final, Venkatesh played an unbeaten innings of 52 runs off 26 balls. In this final, Sunrisers won the title by defeating Hyderabad by 8 wickets. In this match, thanks to Venkatesh’s innings, the KKR team chased down the target of 114 runs in just 10.3 overs.
Apart from this, the Kolkata team also played the 2021 final but then Chennai Super Kings won the title by winning the match by 27 runs. In that final too, Venkatesh had played an innings of 50 runs in 32 balls. Venkatesh played 14 matches in the 2024 season, in which he scored 370 runs. During this period 4 fifties were also scored.
In the IPL 2023 season, Venkatesh scored 404 runs in 14 matches. He then scored a century and two fifties. This IPL 2025 will be Venkatesh’s fifth season. He scored 182 runs in the 2022 season and 370 runs in the 2021 season. Venkatesh has benefited from this brilliant performance.
