IPL 2024 title-winning captain Shreyas Iyer is likely to lead Delhi Capitals in the upcoming Indian Premier League, after the franchise have reportedly parted ways with Rishabh Pant. Based on several media reports, things didn’t materialise between Iyer and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). As a result, KKR are set to release Iyer ahead of the mega auction.
Based on a PTI report, Pant was a part of hectic negotiations with the Delhi Capitals management for the past one month but a complicated management structure led the dashing wicketkeeper to bid goodbye to the franchise. Pant has been a part of the Delhi Capitals franchise for the past eight years including three seasons as captain.
Delhi Capitals’ four likely retentions are expected to be Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs. "Once GMR appointed Venugopal Rao as Director of Cricket and Hemang Badani as head coach, the writing was on cards,” a source told PTI.
“GMR is also in talks with Shreyas Iyer, under whom the team played its only final in 2020. Iyer is not going to play for KKR," he added. Currently the Delhi Capitals management structure allows each of the co-owner to run the team for two years.
"This is a complicated structure and it would always be counter-productive for a team. So once management came in hands of GMR, they overhauled it completely," the source said. Meanwhile, Pant will be a hotcake in the mega auction as he will be on several team’s radar.
According to reports, the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise are set to part ways with their champion captain. Under Iyer, KKR won the title for the third time last year. Based on a Cricbuzz report, negotiations didn’t go well between Iyer and KKR, forcing the franchise to give up on their title-winning leader. It is also understood that Iyer has been approached by a couple of franchises too.
Besides Iyer, KKR are also likely to get rid of West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell and Australian pacer Mitchell Starc. For the unknown, Starc was bought for a record price of ₹24.75 crore in the IPL 2024 auction. KKR’s four likely retentions are Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana.
