Shreyas Iyer, former Kolkata Knight Riders captain, will be back at the Eden Gardens – this time as Punjab Kings skipper for an IPL 2025 match on Saturday. Iyer was instrumental in leading KKR to its third IPL title in 2024. Even after that title-winning run, Iyer was not retained. After KKR’s decision, Iyer had said: “Yes, obviously disappointed, because when you don’t have a certain line of communication and if you get to know things one week prior to the retention date, then obviously something is lacking over there. So I had to take a call. Whatever is written is supposed to happen. But other than that, I would just like to say that the time I spent over there with Shah Rukh Sir, the family, all of them, was phenomenal.”

 Sunil Gavaskar, former India captain, explained how ‘fired up’ Iyer would be while facing KKR as PBKS captain on Saturday. 

“He will be fired up. And if he had been, you know, I’ve been out of form, if they had not done well, then one could understand. But the captain of a winning team not being retained will hurt. No question about it, that will hurt. Now he’s got, he went for much, much more to PBKS, which is fine. That would have given him a little bit of consolation, but nobody wants to be left out, and that is the thing. So clearly, I think he will have a point to prove. Or maybe half a dozen points to prove,” said Gavaskar, while speaking to the broadcasters.

KKR had lost to PBKS in the first leg of their face-off in IPL, when they could not chase 112 to slump to one of the most embarrassing losses in the history of the tournament.

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke, however, backed KKR to make a comeback. The defending champions have only four out of eight matches so far. 

“No, I don’t think they will. I think that game will be left in the memory for KKR and they won’t want to talk about it ever again, but I think it’s gonna be a beauty. Let’s see what sort of pitch we get. I think both teams really need to win. KKR is underperforming with their team. They’ve got enough senior players, they’ve got enough experience. They’re just a little bit like SRH,” he said.

“Those two this season haven’t been great, and they still have a chance they can turn things around. I think KKR’s one of those teams like Mumbai. If they get a roll on, they’re so destructive.”