Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Abhishek Nayar has revealed that the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) always go after his team’s players, giving an instance of former KKR all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer.
Notably, Iyer, who was part of the KKR set-up over the years, has been roped in by the RCB at a whopping price of INR 7 Crore at the IPL 2026 mini-auction. Interestingly, both RCB and KKR were involved in a bidding war.
“Venkatesh Iyer has been a franchise player for us from the start. We tried to get him back. We felt other teams were saving money for different players, so we thought we could get him at a lower price,” Abhishek Nayar said on JioStar.
“We tried, but RCB always seems to go after our players. This year, they got him. Venkatesh has been phenomenal for us over the years, and I wish him all the best in his new IPL journey,” he added.
Furthermore, Nayar also revealed the reason why they went hard behind the Australian all-rounder Cameron Green. He also disclosed that Green would be slotted in the top three and expressed hope that he could continue the trend of top-order batters scoring 400-plus runs, which led them towards success in the IPL 2024 season.
"I cannot say how high we were willing to go for him (Green), but we wanted to go all out. If we have the money, we spend it. There was no point in saving the money. The goal was to do whatever we could to secure Green, as he is a key player for us. With Andre Russell gone, we need someone to take the franchise forward. So, we decided we must have Cameron Green," he asserted.
"We see Cameron Green batting in the top three. He is a player who can score 500 runs for us. That is why we were so desperate to get him. We know he has that ability. He has scored over 500 runs in the IPL before, so he can do well in the top order. He solves different problems for us. Over the past few years, our success came when our top three players scored more than 400 runs. The hope is that he can score big runs for us," he concluded.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) full squad for IPL 2026
Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell*, Sunil Narine*, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green*, Matheesha Pathirana*, Mustafizur Rahman*, Tejasvi Singh, Rachin Ravindra*, Finn Allen*, Tim Seifert*, Akash Deep, Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Kartik Tyagi.
*denotes overseas players.
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“RCB always seems to go after our players” - KKR head coach makes an interesting comment after losing Venkatesh Iyer’s bid
KKR head coach Abhishek Nayar reacts to losing Venkatesh Iyer to RCB in the IPL 2026 auction after an intense bidding war.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Abhishek Nayar has revealed that the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) always go after his team’s players, giving an instance of former KKR all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer.
Notably, Iyer, who was part of the KKR set-up over the years, has been roped in by the RCB at a whopping price of INR 7 Crore at the IPL 2026 mini-auction. Interestingly, both RCB and KKR were involved in a bidding war.
“Venkatesh Iyer has been a franchise player for us from the start. We tried to get him back. We felt other teams were saving money for different players, so we thought we could get him at a lower price,” Abhishek Nayar said on JioStar.
“We tried, but RCB always seems to go after our players. This year, they got him. Venkatesh has been phenomenal for us over the years, and I wish him all the best in his new IPL journey,” he added.
Furthermore, Nayar also revealed the reason why they went hard behind the Australian all-rounder Cameron Green. He also disclosed that Green would be slotted in the top three and expressed hope that he could continue the trend of top-order batters scoring 400-plus runs, which led them towards success in the IPL 2024 season.
"I cannot say how high we were willing to go for him (Green), but we wanted to go all out. If we have the money, we spend it. There was no point in saving the money. The goal was to do whatever we could to secure Green, as he is a key player for us. With Andre Russell gone, we need someone to take the franchise forward. So, we decided we must have Cameron Green," he asserted.
"We see Cameron Green batting in the top three. He is a player who can score 500 runs for us. That is why we were so desperate to get him. We know he has that ability. He has scored over 500 runs in the IPL before, so he can do well in the top order. He solves different problems for us. Over the past few years, our success came when our top three players scored more than 400 runs. The hope is that he can score big runs for us," he concluded.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) full squad for IPL 2026
Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell*, Sunil Narine*, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green*, Matheesha Pathirana*, Mustafizur Rahman*, Tejasvi Singh, Rachin Ravindra*, Finn Allen*, Tim Seifert*, Akash Deep, Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Kartik Tyagi.
*denotes overseas players.
Stay updated with the latest cricket news, match insights, and exclusive updates at Sky247 India and download the Sky247 app to start betting today!