This Indian batsman, who scored only 133 runs in 9 matches, was sold more expensive than Virat Kohli, Heinrich Klaasen and Nicholas Pooran.

IPL 2025: IPL 2025 Mega Auction is going on. In this mega auction, a shocking decision has been taken by the Kolkata Knight Riders team, knowing which everyone is surprised. The KKR team did not include captain Shreyas Iyer, who made the team the winner in IPL 2024, in its team, but the franchise bought the other Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, for Rs 23.75 crore. I have included you in my team.

Venkatesh Iyer's performance in IPL has not been anything special. This player had performed brilliantly for KKR in the second half of IPL 2021, but since then his performance has not been anything special. He had given his name in the mega auction of IPL 2025 with a base price of Rs 2 crore.

Venkatesh Iyer is happy to get Rs 23.75 crore from KKR in IPL 2025

The mega auction of IPL 2025 saw a battle between Royal Challengers Bangalore and KKR for Venkatesh Iyer. Lucknow Super Giants team was the first to participate in this race. Sanjeev Goenka directly increased the price of Venkatesh Iyer to Rs 6 crores, after this when the price of Venkatesh Iyer became Rs 7.75 crores, Lucknow was out of the race.

After Lucknow's exit, Bengaluru entered and bid up to Rs 14 crore, but after this the Bengaluru team also got eliminated. Due to other teams, KKR increased this bid to Rs 20 crores. After this, once again RCB entered and increased the price to Rs 23 crore, however in the end KKR included him in their fold by paying Rs 23.75 crore.

IPL 2025: How are Venkatesh Iyer's statistics in IPL?

Venkatesh Iyer joined the KKR team for the first time in IPL 2021, he did not get a chance to play the first half of IPL 2021, after this, Venkatesh Iyer got a chance in the second half of IPL 2021 which was played in 2022 and he led the team to the IPL. Reached the finals of 2021, but the team failed to win the title and Chennai Super Kings team became the champion.

After this, he contributed to the team's victory in IPL 2024 and KKR won the IPL 2024 title by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer. Venkatesh Iyer has played a total of 51 matches since IPL 2021, during which he has scored a total of 1326 runs at an average of 31.57 and a strike rate of 137.12. During this period, he has scored 1 century and 11 half-centuries from his bat. His best score in IPL is 104 runs.

Venkatesh Iyer has also played 2 ODIs and 9 T20s for India. During this period, Venkatesh Iyer has scored 133 runs in 9 T20 matches, during which his average was 33.25 and strike rate was 162.19. Whereas in ODI, he has scored only 24 runs at an average of 12.