Kolkata Knight Riders are set to announce some surprising calls |courtesy-BCCI/IPL
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Kolkata Knight Riders won the 2024 IPL
- KKR will release club legend Andre Russell
- Skipper Shreyas Iyer is set to leave too
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are all set to shock the cricketing world on Thursday (October 31) when they announce their list of retained players for the 2025 season, and neither club legend Andre Russell, star pacer Mitchell Starc, nor title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer will stay with the franchise.
According to a report by EspnCricinfo, KKR are set to retain only three capped players (Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarty, and Rinku Singh) alongside Harshit Rana, who is uncapped. Indian all-rounder Ramandeep Singh could stay with the franchise as the second uncapped retained player.
If KKR retains both Harshit and Ramandeep, they will have just one Right to Match (RTM) card at the mega auction, which will mean only one of Starc, Shreyas, Russell, Phil Salt, and Venkatesh Iyer can be retained.
KKR's Big IPL Retention Shocker
It was widely reported that KKR owner Shah Rukh Khan argued for more retentions and the franchise always faced a headache with a supremely talented group of players in their ranks which stormed to the title in 2024 while losing just three games over their entire campaign.
However, the decision to not retain Russell has come out of the blue as the star all-rounder has been associated with the franchise for a decade. KKR did not release the West Indies star even when he was banned for a season in 2017. Russell has played 126 matches for the three-time champions, scored 2491 runs, and taken 116 wickets. In their title-winning campaign in 2024, he scored 222 runs at a strike-rate of 185 while taking 19 wickets in 15 matches.
The decision not keep Shreyas will also surprise many as top quality Indian captains are hard to find. Before leading KKR to the title in 2024, he also captained Delhi Capitals (DC) to their only final in 2020. Shreyas is the only captain in IPL history to lead two teams to the summit clash.
The Knight Riders have lost the services of Gautam Gambhir, Abhishek Nayyar, and Ryan Ten Doeschate ahead of the 2025 season, who have joined the Indian Cricket team's coaching staff.
Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Cricket, Sports and around the world.
