Haren
Shreyas Iyer blazed through against the Goa bowling attack in Mumbai’s first match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) on Saturday, scoring a blistering 130* off just 57 balls.
Iyer’s whirlwind knock, the third ton of his T20 career, eventually ended up being just above par for Mumbai as Goa offered a huge scare in a 251-run chase at the Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad, losing only by 26 runs.
Despite an all-format snub, the out-of-favour India batter proved just a day before the IPL 2025 Mega Auction in Jeddah, that he would be a force to reckon with and would be a great asset, irrespective of the team that will hold out the paddle for him.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made a surprising decision by dropping Iyer from a full deck of six retentions. Should they wish to bring back the captain who led them to their third title, KKR will have to roll out fresh bids after exhausting the option of using a Right-to-Match (RTM) card at the auction table.
After missing the entirety of IPL 2023 due to injury concerns, Iyer returned with 351 runs in 14 matches during KKR’s waltz to the title. The 29-year-old had a rocky start to the domestic season, bagging three ducks in five matches across the Duleep Trophy and the first round of the Ranji Trophy.
Iyer was quick to bounce back to form as he cracked consecutive hundreds in the subsequent Ranji rounds, including a career-best 233 against Odisha. Iyer smote 21 boundaries in his latest ton, including 10 sixes.
Though he has yet to score an IPL ton, Iyer has struck three hundreds in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the joint-most for any batter. Coupled with his return to form and leadership qualities, the Mumbai mainstay will potentially cause a huge bidding war as there are multiple teams entering this auction vying for a fresh captaincy candidate.
Iyer is listed at a base price of Rs 2 crore in the first set of marguee players.
