India, Aug. 14 -- For the large part of IPL 2025, wherever Venkatesh Iyer went, the discussion around his price tag followed. And most of that was negative. Right from the moment the hammer went down in the Kolkata Knight Riders' favour for Venkatesh Iyer in the mega auction, eyes questioning the move of shelling out a whopping Rs.23.75 crores have been relentless. It's a staggering amount. It would have easily become the highest bid in most other IPL auctions -- it was the third costliest behind Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer this year.

The added masala in the story was the fact that KKR, the defending champions, did not hold their trophy-winning Shreyas Iyer and only bid for him till Rs.10 crore in the auctions. Did they want Venkatesh ...