IPL 2025 Retention: Three KKR players who won't be retained despite excellent outing in IPL 2024

The anticipation for the IPL retentions are rising as the deadline day of October 31 comes closer. The franchises are bound to submit their final retention list ahead of the IPL 2025 auction.

Although the auction looks more than a month away, the teams will have to name their star players who shall continue with them in the next cycle of IPL as well. Kolkata Knight Riders, the defending IPL champions, will be in a spot of bother though.

The class of 2024, which ended their decade-long quest for a trophy, is set to get dismantled as many members of the winning team shall move to seek pastures new in the auction. Amid this, KKR do have an opportunity to exercise their maximum retention stock, which may come at a hefty price of Rs 79 crore (6 players retention), more than 65 per cent of the total salary cap.

KKR are likely to keep Shreyas Iyer in the team after the India player led them to a title earlier this year. Sunil Narine and Andre Russell are looking like obvious choices, while someone like Harshit Rana may be retained as well in the uncapped quota.

A few players are likely to be shipped off for the auction, and among them, there are some big names. Here are three KKR players who will not be retained by the franchise-

Varun Chakravarthy

Varun Chakravarthy is likely to be a name who shall be put into the auction. The mystery spinner had an excellent outing last season, where he picked up 21 wickets. The 33-year-old finished as the 2nd highest wicket-taker in the tournament and was consistent throughout for the Knight Riders. Despite having a superb IPL 2024, Varun is unlikely to find a place in the KKR retention list.

Venkatesh Iyer

Another player who is unlikely to be retained is Venkatesh Iyer. The southpaw was brilliant for KKR in 2024, scoring 370 runs in the tournament with a strike rate of 158. Iyer was sublime with his batting in almost all of the matches and showed his devastating self in the tournament. KKR had retained him ahead of the IPL 2022 auction but are certain to leave him out this time around.

Phil Salt

Phil Salt changed KKR's batting dynamics last season. Along with Sunil Narine, the Englishman, who came as a replacement for Jason Roy, gave KKR some blistering starts with the bat. He scored 435 runs at a strike rate of 182 and also scored four fifties. The 28-year-old was also excellent behind the stumps for the Champions. But it looks less likely that KKR would be looking to retain him. In the auction table, the franchise may give their all to buy him back, but Salt's retention chances are not that high.