Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will have their task cut out as they finalize their retention list ahead of the much-awaited IPL 2025 mega auction.

They are the defending champions of the IPL and will definitely be disappointed not to be able to retain the entire winning team. Several players played an important role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ triumphant campaign. The Kolkata-based team, however, can retain six players from its current squad, either through direct retention or by using the Right to Match (RTM) card.

As a result, Kolkata Knight Riders can only retain a total of six players from a team that features the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Phil Salt, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Harshit Rana and more.

While only time will reveal Kolkata Knight Riders’ final retention list, former India batsman Mohammad Kaif believes the three-time IPL champions should not make the mistake of releasing their captain Shreyas Iyer. He stated that the right-handed batsman should be the first player to be retained.

“When a team wins and becomes champion, then you want the main players to continue playing for the team. Therefore, they would want to retain the maximum number of players, use RTM on some and also buy fewer players in the auction.” Mohammad Kaif told Star Sports.

“Talking about Iyer’s batting, he may not play that well. But in terms of his role as captain, leading the team to the title is a big thing. I think he has improved as a captain, he is improving… Yes Yes he can lead so many players and make you win the trophy, then it deserves to be the first (to be preserved),” Mohammad Kaif added.

Mohammad Kaif’s warning to KKR:

Speaking further, Mohammad Kaif also issued a warning to the Kolkata Knight Riders reminding them of their decision to release Eoin Morgan. After Morgan led the Knight Riders to the 2021 IPL final, the franchise decided not to retain him ahead of the 2022 mega auction.

In the next two seasons, the team failed to make the cut for the playoffs. Kaif also did not mention Rinku Singh’s name while talking about the players KKR could retain. He said the franchise should first retain Iyer before thinking about players like Salt, Russell and Narine.

“You can’t do what you did with Morgan. He took the team to the finals but was released later and KKR struggled in the next 2-3 seasons. Retain Iyer first and let him continue as captain. After that (think ) Phil Salt, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine will have to retain these 3-4 players, you have to leave them in the auction and bring them from there,” said Mohammad Kaif.

KKR is expected to announce the names of the retained players later this month. The auction is likely to be held in December this year.