Venkatesh Iyer To Earn More Than Virat Kohli

IPL 2025 Auction: Venkatesh Iyer To Earn More Than Virat Kohli, KKR Buy Back Batter For... Photo : BCCI

The IPL 2025 auction is currently underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as teams are shelling out massive amounts from players that want. Many predicted Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant to be among the top purchases in the auction this year, and that did happen as they were sold to Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants for Rs 26.75 and Rs 27 crore respectively. However, little did anyone expect that Venkatesh Iyer , who is out of reckoning from Team India for quite some time, would too go above the Rs 20 crore mark KKR have now bought back their IPL 2024 winning team's hero for an astonishing price.

Venkatesh Iyer To Earn More Than Virat Kohli

Venkatesh Iyer was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for a whopping amount of Rs 23.5 crore. They had an intense bidding war with RCB to acquire the services of this player. RCB, on the other hand, had retained Virat Kohli for Rs 21 crore, which made him the first Indian player to earn more than Rs 20 crore. This means that Venkatesh Iyer will earn Rs 2.5 crore more than Kohli in the upcoming season of the IPL.

Venkatesh Iyer becomes the fourth most expensive buy in the history of the IPL auction after Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Mitchell Starc.

KKR also become the first-ever franchise to buy two players in the IPL auction for more than Rs 20 crore. They did so back in the IPL2024 auction when they bought Mitchell Starc for Rs 24.75 crore.

Venkatesh Iyer Was 'Teary-Eyed' After KKR Did Not Retain Him

In an emotional interaction with RevSportz, Venkatesh Iyer had said that he was left teary-eyed after KKR did not retain him ahead of the IPL 2025 auction.

"This is a family. There’s so much emotion. It kind of makes me teary-eyed that my name is not on the retention list but I am a practical guy. I understand how it works. I was on the receiving end of on being one of the retentions in 2022 and I knew how it feels to be retained and to be left out as well. So, I think KKR have had a great retention, really happy for that. I would love to be there and the doors are open. If I have a good auction then I might still end up playing for the team I love the most," Iyer had said.

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