Kolkata Knight Riders have retained six players for IPL 2025 in the form of Rinku Singh, Varun Chakraborty, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh. The franchise spent Rs 57 crore of the Rs 120 crore purse to retain its key players. Now he will have a purse of Rs 63 crore for the mega auction. Rinku Singh became the most expensive player as he was retained for Rs 13 crore.
On the other hand, franchises like Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals, who have Rs 65 crore left to enter the auction, may try to buy some of KKR’s retained players. Although Kolkata has released some big players, they have retained their core players. CSK and DC, who had a poor performance last season, would like to buy some players who were part of the defending champion team.
5 KKR players for which CSK and DC can fight on the auction table (Here are 5 KKR players who could trigger a bidding war between CSK and DC)
5. Rahmanullah Gurbaz
KKR had signed Gurbaz for Rs 50 lakh before IPL 2024. He sat out for almost all the matches but played Qualifier 1 and the final as Phil Salt went back to England for the T20 World Cup 2024. In two matches, he scored 62 runs at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 134.78. He played a responsible inning of 39 runs in 32 balls with the help of five fours and two sixes in the final against SRH, which played an important role in KKR winning the third title.
Gurbaz has always spoken about his love for CSK legend MS Dhoni. He has also said that he looks at Dhoni as an inspiration. If CSK is looking beyond Ajinkya Rahane, they would probably want stability in their batting order. On the other hand, after Rishabh Pant’s exit, DC is also looking for a complete wicketkeeper-batsman and may opt to go for a player like Gurbaz.