Is Gautam Gambhir helping KKR retain Harshit Rana as uncapped player before IPL 2025?

Harshit Rana picked up 19 wickets in the IPL 2024 season, helping KKR win the title.

Is the new India head coach Gautam Gambhir still involved with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)? Is he privy to KKR’s planning for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction?

Is he toying with Harshit Rana’s potential T20I debut for India to assist KKR in retaining him for the mega auction as an uncapped player for a much lower price than they would otherwise have to splurge if Rana makes his India debut?

These questions are swirling on social media as Rana awaits his T20I cap and Gambhir has come under allegations by some fans for helping his former franchise while on duty as India’s head coach.

Last month, the IPL released a set of rules for the IPL 2025 mega auction. Franchises can retain up to six players with a maximum of five capped players and a maximum of two uncapped Indian players.

The retention slabs are as follows: INR 18 crores, INR 14 crores, INR 11 crores, INR 18 crores and INR 14 crores. An uncapped player will be retained at INR 4 crores.

October 31 is the deadline for the franchises to submit their retentions.

The IPL GC also confirmed that, for the purposes of retention, any player who makes his international debut before October 31 will be considered capped. If a player is retained while being uncapped before October 31, he will remain in the uncapped slab even if he plays an international match before the auction.

Is Gamhir helping KKR retain Rana as an uncapped player?

This means that if Harshit Rana, who had a stellar season with KKR this year and helped them win the IPL 2024 trophy, doesn’t make his debut in the IND vs BAN T20I series, he can be retained as an uncapped player at INR 4 crores, instead of a lot more money if he becomes capped.

Questions are being raised over Gambhir, who was KKR’s mentor last season and has a close association with the franchise and its owners, now because he played Mayank Yadav in the IND vs BAN T20I series even though Rana had earned the call-up for T20Is in Zimbabwe and ODIs in Sri Lanka, but didn’t make his India debut then and spent the entire time on the bench.

It would be interesting to see if Rana makes his debut in the third T20I against Bangladesh, else it would be difficult for the supporters of Gambhir to quash these rumours and allegations.

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