• Home
  • Who Said What
  • Mitchell Starc Breaks Silence As Kkr Release Him Before Ipl 2025 Havent Heard From Them

Mitchell Starc Breaks Silence As KKR Release Him Before IPL 2025: 'Haven’t Heard From Them'

Kolkata Knight Riders released Mitchell Starc [Source: @CricCrazyJohns/X.com]Kolkata Knight Riders released Mitchell Starc [Source: @CricCrazyJohns/X.com]

On October 31, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made bold retention choices ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. As per the new rules, each franchise can only retain up to six players. While the defending champions KKR opted to hold onto key players, including Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy. 

Notably, this decision meant letting go of several big players who contributed significantly to their third title win, which included Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc.

Mitchell Starc, who was bought for a whopping 24.75 crores in the IPL 2024 auction, making him the most expensive player in the IPL history. The 34-year-old star recently opened up on his release and expressed disappointment regarding the lack of communication from the franchise. 

In the previous season, he claimed 17 wickets in 14 innings, including crucial ones in the playoffs and finals. Starc revealed that he hadn’t been informed of his release directly by the KKR management. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he said, 

"I still haven’t heard from them. It is what it is, that’s franchise cricket, so all barring the Hyderabad boys (Pat Cummins and Travis Head) will be in the auction." 

Starc wasn’t the only one who got released; KKR also decided to let go of their IPL winning captain, Shreyas Iyer.

KKR’s Retentions and Future Auction Strategy

KKR, this time, opted to retain emerging talents such as Rinku Singh, who has been impressed with consistent performances, was retained at INR 13 crore. They also kept Andre Russell and Sunil Narine at INR 12 crore each, along with spinner Varun Chakravarthy at the same rate. Additionally, KKR opted to secure uncapped talents Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana at INR 4 crore each.

Ahead of the highly anticipated IPL 2025 mega auction KKR will have a remaining purse of INR 51 crore out of the total INR 120 crore budget, having spent INR 69 crore on their retentions.