The IPL 2026 auction will be very important, especially for Kolkata Knight Riders. There was a lot of discussion about the captaincy of KKR last season, ultimately the burden of captaincy was placed on the shoulders of Ajinkya Rahane. KKR stood eighth in the table. Now the speculation about releasing Venkatesh Iyer before the auction has also gained momentum, because with his departure the Kolkata team’s purse will be emptied by Rs 23.75 crore. Here let us know about those 5 players whom KKR can release before the IPL 2026 mini auction.

KKR can release 5 players

Venkatesh Iyer

The first name can be that of Venkatesh Iyer, because emptying the purse of Rs 23.75 crore in the mini auction will help KKR a lot in making a strong team. Last year, after receiving such a huge amount, Iyer was able to score only 142 runs in 11 matches.

Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali was bought by KKR for Rs 2 crore in the mega auction last year. Ali could score only 6 runs in 5 matches and could take only 6 wickets in bowling. Due to this poor performance, Kolkata Knight Riders can release him and choose another all-rounder.

spencer johnson

Spencer Johnson, who wreaked havoc across the world with his lethal bowling speed, proved to be a complete failure in the IPL. KKR bought him for Rs 2.8 crore, but after playing 4 matches in the entire season, he was able to take only one wicket.

Enrique Nortje

Enrique Nortje has failed to perform consistently in the last 2-3 seasons. In the last 2 seasons, he has taken only 8 wickets in 8 matches. Whereas in 2025, he took only one wicket in 2 matches for KKR. His economy rate was 11.86.

Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey is one of the few players who has been an integral part of the Indian Premier League since 2008. KKR had signed him in the mega auction for Rs 75 lakh. He got three matches in the entire season, in which only 92 runs were scored from his bat.

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When Ajinkya Rahane and Angris Raghuvanshi were at the crease, Kolkata Knight Riders had a score of 62/2 and to win was needed 50 runs in 75 balls. Who could say that Punjab Kings will still defend this score. In this exciting match on Tuesday, Kolkata’s last 8 batsmen were dismissed within 33 runs and Punjab won the match by 16 runs. This is the smallest score in IPL history, which has been defended by a team. Disappointed with this defeat, a video of KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane is going viral, in which he is speaking something to Shreyas Iyer in Marathi.

Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the 8th over, by then Kolkata’s possibility of victory was 98 percent. After this, Tu Chal Main Aa Aaye Wali Chawla started and KKR batsmen collapsed like cards.

Ajinkya Rahane’s video viral

The viral video is after the match when the players of Punjab and Kolkata team were joining hands. When Rahane reached Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer, he said something in Marathi. It is clearly understanding in the video that he is saying that the work is not useless Batting Kelly (how much we have batted).

Was watching the #Pbksvkkr Game and Caught this funny bit as shreyas and rahane shok hands at the end. In a self-dePrecating way rahane appears to be saying to shreyas in Marathi: Kay waste wealth pic.twitter.com/bnkc7txgbu

– Nikhil Ghanekar (@nghanekar) April 15, 2025

After the match, Rahane took responsibility for the defeat and said that only after he was dismissed, the match started going to the other side. He said about the batting of the KKR team, “We really batted very poorly as a batting unit, the bowlers performed really well against Punjab’s strong batting line up. I felt that we were careless, we should take full responsibility as a unit.”

Eden gardens pitch for ipl 2025: Defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders under the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane has not started well in IPL 2025. The first match he lost at his home ground (Eden Gardens). RCB defeated him by 7 wickets in this match. After this match, Ajinkya Rahane’s statement came that he would like to see the spin bowlers on the pitch. However, this indirect demand of KKR has been rejected by the pitch curator of Eden Gardens.

After the defeat of RCB, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane said in the press conference that he would like to see the spin bowlers getting help. He had said, “We would like to see the spin bowlers on the pitch getting help. But then I would say that this pitch had been covered for the last one and a half days. The two spinners we have are fantastic and are able to bowl on any wicket. I am confident that he is full of confidence.”

The pitch curator also refuses to change

Swelling Mukherjee has denied any change on the pitch, talking to Revspports. He said, “According to the Rule and Regulation of the IPL, the franchise has no control on the pitch. Ever since I am, the pitch here is like this. It was earlier also. Now things will not change and not in future either.”

Mukherjee also said that RCB spinners took 4 wickets in this match. Krunal Pandya took 3 wickets. Suyash Sharma also took the important wicket of Andre Russell.

Let us tell you that in this match, Krunal Pandya took 3 important wickets including Ajinkya Rahane. He also dismissed Rinku Singh and Venkatesh Iyer. He was voted the best player of the match for this great performance.