Shreyas Iyer, who captained the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to its IPL title victory last season, became the most expensive signing in history of IPL when he was sold to PBKS for Rs 26.75 crore at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction held at the Abady Al-Johar Arena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday. However, Rishabh Pant broke his record moments later when LSG splurged Rs 27 crore on him.
Despite leading KKR to its third IPL title, Shreyas was released by the franchise ahead of the auction. The 29-year-old has been in impressive form this domestic season, scoring two centuries in the Ranji Trophy and another ton in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Ricky Ponting, Punjab Kings coach, said, “I haven’t spoken to him (Shreyas Iyer about captaincy) yet. I tried to call him before the auction, but he didn’t pick up. He’s been a successful captain in the IPL before; I worked with him 3-4 years in Delhi, and he was the championship winner last season. I’m delighted to work with him again; if he can do that for us in the IPL, I’ll be pretty happy.”
In IPL 2024, Shreyas amassed 351 runs across 14 matches with a strike rate of 146.86.
Notably, he became the first Indian captain to lead two different teams to an IPL final, having previously guided Delhi Capitals to the summit clash in 2020.
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