IPL 2022 auction: KKR buy Shreyas Iyer for £1.1m

INDIA middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer turned out to be a top draw on the opening day of the two-day auctioneering for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 in Bengaluru in the southern Indian state of Karnataka as he was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for rupees 12.25 crore (£1.19 million).

His base price was rupees 2 crore (£194,836).

The 27-year-old Mumbai-born right-hand batter, who recently slammed a ton in his Test debut, has played 87 matches in the IPL since he started playing the T20 tournament in 2015 and scored 2,375 runs at an average of 31.66 and strike rate of around 124. He has made 16 fifties in the tournament with the highest score of 96. In international cricket, Iyer has scored more than 1,700 runs so far with two hundreds.

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However, the KKR will perhaps think that Iyer will be their answer to the question on captaincy. Ever since the exit of Gautam Gambhir who had won them two trophies in 2012 and 2014, the Knight Riders have struggled to find a worthy successor to the former southpaw in either Dinesh Karthik or Eoin Morgan. Morgan though led the team to the final last year but his own horrendous form with the bat did not help his captaincy.

Iyer, on the other hand, proved his captaincy mettle by taking Delhi Capitals to their first-ever final in the tournament in 2020 though they lost the title clash against Mumbai Indians. In the 2021 edition, however, Iyer was not the Capitals’ captain and could play only eight games because of an injury. He was replaced by Rishabh Pant as the Capitals skipper.

The bidding war for Iyer turned intense between Royal Challengers Bangalore, Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants, Gujarat Titans and KKR and it was the team co-owned by Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla which had the last laugh.

The IPL 2022 will be a 10-team affair and played between April 2 and June 3.