IPL 2025: Shreyas Iyer to face his former team KKR, can he get better of his past?

Punjab Kings (PBKS), under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, are all set to take on the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 31st match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Interestingly, PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer will be playing against his former team that he led to win the title last year in IPL 2024. But in an unexpected turnaround of events, KKR released Iyer despite the fact that he was only the second KKR skipper to win the title. 

Furthermore, Punjab Kings bought the star India batter for a whopping amount of INR 26.75 crores in the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah. He also ended up being the second most expensive player in the entire 17-year-long history of the Indian Premier League. 

Here's how Shreyas Iyer responded to his release despite winning the IPL title 

Speaking of Iyer’s stint with KKR last year in IPL 2024, he led the side to qualify convincingly into the finals with a sensational performance in the tournament’s league stage, followed by an 8-wicket win in the first qualifier against SRH. 

Earlier in the tournament’s league stage, KKR finished the campaign as table toppers, winning nine games, alongside losing three games and two games without any result out of their 14 matches in the tournament. They earned 20 points to their name to make a confident entry into the knockout stage.

After defeating SRH by 8 wickets in the first qualifier, Shreyas Iyer’s men secured a direct spot in the tournament’s summit clash. Once again in the final, KKR met SRH and repeated their emphatic performance with a win by the same margin of 8 wickets, with which they had won the first qualifier.

Everyone was expecting that KKR would retain Iyer for the 2025 season, but it didn’t happen as the franchise released him and let him go. After buying Iyer in a massive bid of INR 26.75 crores, Punjab Kings also announced him as their skipper for the tournament’s 18th edition.

In the current season so far, PBKS has performed quite well under the 30-year-old’s captaincy. They have won three games while losing two in their five games so far. Besides that, Iyer himself has also been in an outstanding batting form; he has smashed 250 runs in five innings, with an outstanding batting average of 83.33, including two unbeaten appearances and a brilliant strike rate of 208.33. He has also scored three half-centuries, which showcase his consistency in the tournament.

So, it will be an interesting sight to see how Iyer performs against the same team which he led to become the champions just a season ago. It will be a big test for him to prove his worth and let KKR feel a bit of loss by letting him go before the IPL 2025 mega auction.