All eyes will be on Shreyas Iyer when he returns to Eden Gardens as Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Iyer captained KKR in IPL 2024 and led them to their third IPL title. He was not retained by KKR ahead of the auction. While KKR did bid for him in the auction, PBKS secured his services for a whopping 26.75 crore. Iyer's signing paid immediate dividends for PBKS, who won five out of the eight matches played so far, including a win over KKR where PBKS defended 111.On Iyer's return to Kolkata, Sunil Gavaskar said the PBKS captain will be fired up to do well against KKR.

He questioned KKR's decision to leave out title-winning captain Iyer, saying that the decision would have made sense had Iyer been out of form."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 would be hurt by the defeat to PBKS earlier in the season, where they failed to chase 112; however, former Australia captain Michael Clarke feels it won't have much negative impact on the team. Clarke compared KKR to the Mumbai Indians and said it is a team that can be hard to stop when gets on a roll. "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.""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," said Clarke.