Before today, only once had an Indian player crossed the INR 15 crore mark in the history of the IPL auction. Until Venkatesh Iyer's name came up, three players had crossed that mark already in the auction on Sunday.

The other three – Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh – were the expected top draws before the first bid was raised. Perhaps not Venkatesh, up for bidding in a mega auction for the very first time and ended up sparking widespread surprise.

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How high did Venkatesh Iyer go?

Venkatesh is now the fourth-most expensive player in the history of the IPL auction, placing himself at No.4 ahead of Pat Cummins' enormous bid of INR 20.50 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad last year. Earlier today, Pant and Shreyas became the first two entrants of the INR 20 Crore club amongst Indians.

Notably, he was not retained by KKR ahead of the mega auction. The team retained six players (the maximum allowed) including four capped players in Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. They additionally retained Harshit Rana (uncapped before the Perth Test) and Ramandeep Singh as their uncapped players.

KKR split their allowed retention amount as follows: INR 13 crore (Rinku Singh), INR 12 crore (Varun Chakravarthy), INR 12 crore (Sunil Narine), and INR 12 crore (Andre Russell). The deducted amount from their purse was INR 61 crore to retain their capped players, and a further INR 8 crore for the two uncapped players combined.

Potentially, KKR would have felt that bringing Rinku Singh and Varun Chakravarthy back from the market would have been more expensive than Venkatesh Iyer, which is why they let him go.

Having not bagged any of the first 23 players, KKR's opening buy of the day became Venkatesh.

Who competed with KKR?

Any bidding war needs at least two desperate teams. Venkatesh was slotted in the highest base price bracket of INR 2 crore, with KKR making the first bid. Until the INR 7.5 Cr mark, they were fighting against Lucknow Super Giants to buy him back. From INR 8 Cr onwards, RCB joined the battle, with LSG backing out.

By then, LSG had already bagged Pant for INR 27 Cr, but RCB, with a whopping INR 65.50 still left at that point, took up the pursuit until they pulled out at the INR 23.50 Cr mark.

Why was Venkatesh Iyer so expensive?

As a capped Indian all-rounder, the 29-year-old Venkatesh Iyer is expected to be in demand, skill-set wise. In the last few years, teams have broken the bank for high-quality overseas all-rounders: Pat Cummins, Sam Curran, Cam Green, Ben Stokes and Chris Morris have all gone over the INR 15 Cr mark in the last five years.

Now, Venkatesh isn't really the same stature as the others, but has been an IPL regular since his breakthrough season in 2021. At the same time, he might be an all-rounder on paper, but has barely been contributing with the ball. In his last three seasons, he's bowled a combined five overs, picking up no wickets. Back at a team that already has Andre Russell as the potential fifth/sixth bowler, he won't be expected to have much of a bowling contribution.

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That brings us to his batting. RCB seemed desperate for him: the team has been notoriously short of having a good domestic batting core, and would have seen Venkatesh's versatility in the order (he batted at Nos.3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 last season).

At KKR, he's opened in 22 innings where he strikes at 122.20; at 15 innings at No.3, the number goes up to 166.77. That includes a 26-ball fifty in the IPL 2024 final, and a 28-ball 51 in Qualifier 1, while also hitting a 52-ball 70 from No.5 (and smashing 100-metre sixes). It's probably the same floater role they expect him to excel at.

There's an obvious wave of surprise too: he is currently out of national contention, having played two ODIs and nine T20Is in 2021/22. Having broken his ankle in 2022, he's not bowled as regularly as he used to.

Eoin Morgan, under whom Venkatesh debuted in IPL 2021, told JioCinema: "We normally see the type of supply-and-demand for the kind of player he is in the mini-auction. In many ways, you've paid way over but it was a case of two teams who were absolutely desperate for him.

However, he insisted that Venkatesh was a "fine, fine player", and "very destructive when he gets going."

"Very few can plan when he gets to 30-40 in a T20 game, particularly at the top of the order. Don't forget the magnificent hundred against Mumbai (in 2023) and 80-odd (70) last year. That's the potential Kolkata see".

Speaking about the purchase, KKR managing director Venky Mysore said, "Auctions are this way only. It's about the type of player you want. Prices have a certain meaning within a certain band, it surprises you all the time.

"At the end of the day, it's about the player and type of player you want in your franchise. When you have salary caps going up, prices will also expand. For us it was about trying to keep our core. So that was always the kind of thinking.

"It always balances itself out, if you see Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje who we picked up [for lower prices]. On an overall basis it all works out."

Venkatesh himself said to JioCinema, "Let's not speak about that [the price tag]. The most important thing is that I'm going back to KKR."

Is there a leadership role too?

With Shreyas Iyer, their title-winning captain, moving ship, there's also a leadership gap for KKR. He doesn't have any real senior-level experience, but did captain Central Zone in the Deodhar Trophy last year, a List A competition. Before that, he had briefly led Madhya Pradesh at the U23 level. He's also worked alongside KKR head coach Chandrakant Pandit at Madhya Pradesh.

In all, KKR probably had him in their plans all along, looking to continue him at their core for the next three years. They weren't expecting to be stretched as much by RCB, but went the extra mile (a big one, at that), to keep him with them.

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