3 best retention combinations for KKR ahead of IPL 2025 auction 

Although the IPL has allowed six retentions ahead of the 2025 auction, it's not as straightforward as "pick the best six in order" like it used to be.

The retention salary slabs are likely to be Rs. 18 crore for the first choice, Rs. 14 crore for the second, Rs. 11 crore for the third and back to Rs. 18 and 14 crore for the fourth and fifth choices, respectively. An additional uncapped player can also be retained for Rs. 4 crore.

This means only those teams would retain four to five players who have at least two irreplaceable choices which they think deserve to earn as much as Rs. 18 crore. Not every team has that so there's unlikely to be one strategy for retention.

Below we have discussed three possible combinations for the defending champions, Kolkata Knight Riders. The first is a full-house six, the second is a top-three and the final is a bold top-four.

Check them out:

#1 Full Six: Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Andre Russell and Harshit Rana

This seems like the most obvious choice for a team fresh off winning a title. The KKR management, after losing half of their coaching staff already, would not want the same to happen with their super team.

The simple idea could be to start with the captain, Shreyas Iyer, who provides stability and experience, followed by three star performers from last season - Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy.

Rinku Singh would also have to be in the six purely because he's one of the best finishers in the world, despite not getting a lot of chances to do that in 2024. Harshit Rana, after a breakthrough season with the ball, could be the uncapped pick, as KKR would hope he doesn't debut against Bangladesh this month.

This maintains the balance of the old loyalties, viz Russell and Narine, and also trusts youth. Among them, Shreyas and Russell could be the first and fourth picks and thus the highest earners.

The big misses would be Venkatesh Iyer, Phil Salt and Mitchell Starc and KKR would not be able to use the RTM card on them either. But the team and the players would understand the reasons and the fact that it's the nature of the IPL beast.

This would mean shelling out Rs. 79 crore of the Rs. 120 crore of the budget on just six players. 41 crore might be too small to squeeze in five more for a good 11 plus backups, though it would assure KKR of a solid core.

#2 A safe three: Shreyas Iyer, Andre Russell and Rinku Singh

That fourth retention price is quite steep. So if KKR want to avoid it and if Harshit also makes his debut for India this month, they can opt for this idea.

Retaining the captain, the star all-rounder and a batter that would likely go for over Rs. 15 crore if released in the auction doesn't sound too bad. Leaving Narine and Varun Chakravarthy seems unfathomable but given the former's age and the latter's one-dimensional abilities, KKR can gamble that other teams won't increase their price too much and they can get them back with an RTM.

This would mean an outlay of Rs. 43 crore which will leave the franchise with a significant Rs. 77 crore to build the rest of the squad. It would also translate to a cost of Rs. 14 crore + some on Narine instead of a fixed ~Rs. 30 crore on the two, which is better because KKR can't be sure of their fitness and longevity as they'd be 38 during IPL 2025.

It'd give them more flexibility, though it would come with more uncertainty of the auction. It's a delicate balance and would depend on how confident KKR are of their auction strategy.

#3 A brave four: Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana/Angkrish Raghuvanshi

This strategy would heavily depend on KKR's vision for the future as it would require giving up on their longest loyal partners, Russell and Narine, and letting them find a price that the team may or may not match in the auction.

If the management is brave enough to recognize that Russell and Narine can no longer be in KKR's long-term or even medium-term visions, then this could be the way to go for them. It'd retain three top performers- the captain, a star bowler, and a star batter- plus Harshit or Angkrish Raghuvanshi as the uncapped player.

And it would also leave around Rs. 73 crore for the rest of the squad. But, again, this could only be possible if someone in the coaching staff raises his hands up and says, "Yes, we won last year, but we need to start afresh to keep winning."

This is a high-risk attempt that could go quite wrong but if the team manages to get Russell and Narine back at a much lower price than retention slabs or acquire younger all-rounder alternatives, then it would be like striking gold.