India batter Nitish Rana and his wife took a brutal dig at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after the franchise overlooked the cricketer during the mega auction for the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in Jeddah. Rana, who was part of KKR for six years, was roped in by Rajasthan Royals for INR 4.20 crore.

Rana was an integral part of the KKR set-up since 2018. In fact, he was even elevated to the captaincy role in 2023 after regular skipper Shreyas Iyer missed out on that season owing to his recovery from a back injury. He was a consistent run-getter for KKR, scoring more than 200 runs in each of the seasons, barring 2024, where he played only two games amid injury concerns. In fact, his run in 2020 and 2021 helped him crack into the Indian white-ball team, earning him a debut cap in both T20I and ODI during the tour of Sri Lanka in July 2021.

Despite his contributions, KKR did not retain him ahead of the auction, nor did they place a bid for him or go for the Right-To-Match card, leaving Rana disappointed.

His wife, Saachi Marwah took to social media to share a cryptic post saying: "Loyalty is very expensive, not everyone can afford it." As the post went viral on social media, Rana made his move by sharing an Instagram story, where he wore a pink shirt and captioned it: “Royal-ty is pink!”

Nitish Rana joins Rajasthan Royals

As many as three franchises were keen on acquiring Rana at the auction. Chennai Super Kings were the first to raise the paddle when Rana was presented for a base price of INR 1.50 crore, before finding themselves in a bidding war with Rajasthan Royals. Royal Challengers Bengaluru joined in shortly after, but the 2008 IPL champion eventually outlasted both CSK and RCB with their final bid of INR 4.20 crore.

This will be the third franchise for Rana, who had started his IPL journey in Mumbai Indians in 2015.

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