There has been quite a bit of chatter around Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and their potential captain for the upcoming 2025 season of the IPL. Ajinkya Rahane has emerged as a strong candidate.
Rahane was bought by KKR at his base price of INR 1.5 crore quite late in the auction. He last featured for the franchise back in 2022. He played seven games that year and made 133 runs at a strike-rate of 103.90. Post that, the Maharashtra-born cricketer moved to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and enjoyed a good run.
He played a vital role in CSK’s title win in 2023 when he amassed 326 runs at an average of 32.60 and a strike-rate of 172.48. However, he had a quiet run in 2024, scoring 242 runs while averaging 20.16 and striking at 123.46.
A lot of Rahane’s success at CSK came while batting at No. 3. He could slot in at that number even at KKR. or could even open the batting if the team management decide against opening with Sunil Narine.
According to reports in the Times of India, the 36-year-old is in strong contention to be KKR captain for the upcoming 2025 edition of the IPL. After the auction, it seemed like the defending champions would go in the direction of Venkatesh Iyer. The Madhya Pradesh all-rounder was their most expensive buy as they splurged INR 23.75 crore in the auction. However, that may not be the case now.
“Yes, at the moment it’s 90% confirmed that Ajinkya will be the new KKR captain. He was bought by KKR specifically for the purpose of being a viable captaincy option,” a source was quoted saying to the Times of India.
Rahane last captained in the IPL in 2019
Rahane has previous experience of captaining an IPL side. He led Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) in one game in 2017 before he led Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2018 and half of 2019. Overall, he has led in 25 matches in the IPL and has a win-loss record of 9-16. His last game as IPL captain was back in 2019.
KKR were led by Shreyas Iyer in 2024 and they won their third title before the two parties decided to part ways. Nitish Rana was the captain when Iyer was injured in 2023.
