Shreyas Iyer reveals the reason behind his exit from KKR ahead of IPL 2025

A mega auction in IPL is slated to bring about significant changes to a team. However, the exit of a captain from a title-winning side is still a shocking scenario. The scene shaped up ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction when Kolkata Knight Riders didn't include Shreyas Iyer in their retentions for their title defense. The move sure made waves, with different speculations flowing in from different directions. Some speculated that the Indian batter didn't agree with the retention slab that KKR offered him for the upcoming season. However, now, as Shreyas Iyer has completed a title-winning Champions Trophy campaign with India in Dubai, the batter has opened up on the reason behind his exit.

Lack of recognition scripted the exit of Shreyas Iyer from the KKR camp ahead of IPL 2025

Shreyas Iyer emerged as a key prospect behind India's Champions Trophy victory. Striking consistently in the middle order, the batter stabilized the batting order, coming up with a defining knock in the final chase against New Zealand. Now, as the curtains fall on a successful tournament, the focus shifts to an action-packed schedule as IPL 2025 kicks off from March 22. Iyer, meanwhile, will be seen in new threads, claiming the leadership post of the Punjab Kings.

Kolkata Knight Riders marked a thrilling IPL 2024 campaign, where they claimed their third title under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer. The core, however, transformed as the deadline for the retentions closed in for IPL 2025. The defending champions didn't retain Shreyas Iyer despite the retention slabs being raised higher this time around. While reports floated around suggesting friction between the management and the player, fans waited until the IPL 2025 mega auction. The franchise didn't bid for their last-season skipper but went all in for the namesake, Venkatesh Iyer. KKR splurged 23.75 crore for the all-rounder in a move that suggested the franchise had locked in their next skipper.

Shreyas Iyer, meanwhile, broke pay scale records as Punjab Kings went all in for the title-winning captain. With a 110 crore purse, the highest among the ten teams, PBKS bid 26.75 crore on the batter as Shreyas found a new home, with his coach from Delhi Capitals, Ricky Ponting, assuming the position here this time. While speculations swirled, there never arrived a concrete update on what went down between the IPL 2024 champions and their captain.

However, now, Shreyas Iyer has come up with an explanation. The batter, upon his return from Dubai, expressed that he felt a lack of recognition. As the captain who led the team to their third IPL title, Iyer felt he deserved a bit more recognition for what he had earned following the victory.

"The major focus was to win the IPL, and thankfully, I won it. I personally felt I didn't get the recognition I wanted to after winning the IPL, but at the end of the day, as long as you have self-integrity and you keep doing the right things when no one is watching, that is more important, and that is what I kept doing," Iyer said in a recent interaction.

"When I talk about recognition, it's about getting that respect. It was about the respect for whatever efforts I put on the field. I think sometimes it gets unnoticed, but I am extremely satisfied with the efforts I put in because they weren't easy wickets to bat on," he added.

Last year didn't prove especially fruitful for the Indian batter, but Iyer worked against the grind to turn things in his favor. Despite an impressive run with India at the 2023 ODI World Cup, Iyer lost his central contract with the BCCI for not playing domestic cricket. However, the batter scripted a quick turnaround following the setback. After picking up the IPL 2024 trophy, Iyer went on to play and win the Ranji Trophy, the Irani Cup, and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with Mumbai. The successful run in domestic cricket translated into the Blue jersey as he came back to the team for the ODI season.

After securing a spot in the Champions Trophy squad with an impressive turn-up in the England ODI series at home, Iyer proved elemental to India's victory. The batter scored 263 runs across five matches, notching a gritty 79-run knock against New Zealand at the group stage after Matt Henry triggered a collapse in the Indian batting order with a five-wicket haul. While the focus now shifts to IPL 2025, Shreyas Iyer is poised with the perfect portfolio to earn his central contract back with the BCCI. A confident player, Iyer opened up about the process that helped him track his way back into a successful season.

"Extremely satisfying. To be honest, it has been a journey, and I have learnt a lot in this phase of my life, where I got out of the contract after playing the 2023 ODI World Cup. I reassessed where I went wrong, what I should be doing, how well I need to focus on my fitness. I asked myself all these questions, prepared a routine, and started focusing on my training and the skills I added side by side," Shreyas Iyer noted.

"Once I got continuous matches in domestic cricket, I figured out how important fitness was for me, especially when I raised my concerns at the start of the year. Overall, I am extremely happy with myself... the way I came out of this, the way I handled the situation, and most importantly, I believed in myself," he added.