"I feel Shahrukh Khan won't allow Shreyas Iyer to go" - Aakash Chopra on KKR's potential retentions ahead of IPL 2025 auction

Aakash Chopra reckons the Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) first retention ahead of the IPL 2025 auction should be Shreyas Iyer. He feels the franchise co-owner Shahrukh Khan won't allow their skipper to leave for emotional reasons.

Shreyas led KKR to the IPL 2024 title. The Kolkata-based franchise defeated the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in the final in Chennai in May this year to lift their third IPL trophy.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that Shreyas would be the first player retained by KKR.

"You want to firstly retain the captain, who is Shreyas Iyer. If 18 crores go, let them go because you won't get a captain. He is your winning captain. If Gautam (Gambhir) isn't there, retain your captain to maintain some continuity. There is no doubt that you should retain Shreyas Iyer," he reasoned (2:20).

"You might get Shreyas Iyer for 18 crores using the RTM but never do that with the captain because eventually this game is played by humans, and humans have hearts, and thereby emotions. Who will understand emotions better than Khan sahab (Shahrukh Khan)? So I feel he won't allow Shreyas Iyer to go," the former India opener added.

Shreyas was KKR's fourth-highest run-getter in IPL 2024. He amassed 351 runs at an average of 39.00 and a strike rate of 146.86 in 14 innings.

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"Retain Rinku Singh for sure" - Aakash Chopra on KKR's other potential retentions

In the same video, Aakash Chopra explained that Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, and Sunil Narine should be the Kolkata Knight Riders' other three capped retentions.

"Second - since I am looking from the Indian perspective, if Rinku Singh comes to the market, he will be sold for 14 crores. So retain Rinku Singh for sure. Retain both Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. The problem is that if you retain both, one will be for 11 crores but the fourth retention will be for 18 crores. I would say it is still worth it," he said (2:55).

The former KKR player doesn't want the franchise to retain Varun Chakaravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, and Harshit Rana, if he doesn't remain uncapped, ahead of the auction.

"That is where I will stop. Look to retain only four players. If Harshit Rana remains uncapped, I will try to retain him for four crores. Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer are quality players but if all three of them go into the auction, none of them might go for 14 crores and probably not even for 11 crores," Chopra explained.

Chopra reckons KKR would want to retain Phil Salt but won't be able to do so. He opined that the defending champions won't retain Mitchell Starc even if he puts his name in the auction.