Venkatesh Iyer emerged as the biggest surprise on Day 1 of the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah on Sunday as the Madhya Pradesh all-rounder was bought by KKR for a massive bid of Rs 23.75 crore.
He became only the third player to go past the 20 crore mark in the IPL 2025 auction.
KKR used up their maximum retentions of six players, including two uncapped players, were compelled to release Iyer despite his significant contributions to their IPL 2024 title triumph earlier this year.
However, they went all out to bring back the 29-year-old at the auction, who started with a base price of Rs 2 crore.
The bidding war for Iyer began with KKR initiating the first bid, with Lucknow Super Giants also entering the race to push the price up to Rs 7.5 crore. Royal Challengers Bangalore entered the fray with a Rs 8
The frenzy of bids between KKR and RCB saw Iyer's price soar past the Rs 20 crore mark in no time.
Iyer, who is known for his explosive batting with handy medium pace bowling, has played all his 50 IPL matches for KKR in which he has scored 1326 runs at a strike rate of 137. He played a crucial role in KKR's IPL triumph last season, smashing 370 runs at a strike rate of 158, with four fifties.
RCB fought valiantly till the end but it was KKR who had the last laugh with a winning bid of Rs 23.75 crore -- the fourth highest of all time in the history of the IPL Auction.
"He has been an integral part of the KKR set-up for some time now. We normally see this sort of supply and demand for the players like Venkatesh in the mini-auction. Didn't think we would see it today, but to go for 23.75 is massive over, in my opinion, for the type of player that he is considering," said former England captain Eoin Morgan on Jio Cinema.
