The defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders bought seven players on the opening day of the IPL 2025 auction at Jeddah on Sunday. KKR surprised one and all when they broke the bank for all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, bidding a whopping amount of INR 23.75 crore.

Earlier, KKR had retained Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, and Ramandeep Singh before IPL 2025 auction. KKR decided not to retain their skipper Shreyas Iyer, who wanted to go into the auction. Thus, it will be interesting to note who they would back as their new leader for IPL 2025.

The three-time champions bought players like Quinton de Kock (Rs. 3.60 crore), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Rs. 2 crore), Anrich Nortje (Rs. 6.50 crore), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Rs. 3 crore), Vaibhav Arora (Rs. 1.80 crore), Mayank Markande (Rs. 30 lakh), Rovman Powell (Rs. 1.50 crore), Manish Pandey (Rs. 75 lakh), Spencer Johnson (Rs. 2.80 crore), Luvnith Sisodia (Rs. 30 lakh), Ajinkya Rahane (Rs. 1.50 lakh), Anukul Roy (Rs. 40 lakh), Moeen Ali (Rs. 2 crore), Umran Malik (Rs. 75 lakh) in IPL 2025 auction.

KKR squad after IPL 2025 auction:

Batters: Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia.

Wicketkeepers: Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

All-rounders: Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Moeen Ali.

Fast bowlers: Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Umran Malik.

Spinners: Mayank Markande, Varun Chakaravarthy.

KKR Probable Playing XI:

Quinton de Kock, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora.

The next season of the Indian Premier League will start on March 14, 2025, with the title clash set for May 25.