Three weeks ahead of the 2025 IPL, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders named Ajinkya Rahane as their captain for the season.
Rahane is all set to be the ninth player to lead KKR in the IPL. His predecessors include Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, Shreyas Iyer, and the fill-in captains, Jacques Kallis and Nitish Rana. In a press release, the KKR management named Rahane their captain for the 2025 season, and Venkatesh Iyer his deputy.
Rahane’s IPL record (4,642 runs at a strike rate of 123) matches his record in overall T20 cricket (6,852 at 124). Until a few years ago, there was little that suggested his style of batting would be a great fit in next-gen IPL: across 14 seasons until the 2023 edition, only twice had he scored at quicker than 130, and even then he had never exceeded 140.
He finally found his mojo for his sixth franchise, Chennai Super Kings. In 2023, he struck at 172, a season so phenomenal that it earned him a recall to the Test side for the WTC final. He was named vice-captain for the West Indies tour that followed.
The following year, he failed to repeat his IPL heroics, returning to scoring at the pace he had in his T20 career. He played 13 games last season, making 242 runs at an average a touch above 20 and a strike rate barely reading 123. He was unsurprisingly released ahead of the mega-auction. But the last few months have been a roller-coaster for Rahane.
From almost going unsold to leading the defending champions
Rahane was not bought in the first round of the 2025 IPL auction and was only purchased at his base price of INR 1.50 crore by KKR at the dying stages of the second day of the event. At that point, forget leading the franchise, a spot in the XI looked uncertain, with the franchise expected to open with Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the reserves. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh made up a formidable batting attack, not too dissimilar to the one they had in 2024.
They were, however, one of the few teams without a captain: Having parted ways with Shreyas, KKR hinted at their next leader as they went all out for Venkatesh. He became the fourth-most expensive player in the league’s history, after fetching INR 23.75 crore, a price that befuddled many. However, Venkatesh has been with the team since 2021 and also has a close working relationship with KKR head coach Chandrakanth Pandit. Despite no captaincy experience, they may have seen something the others hadn’t. The fact that he has been named the vice-captain further proves the point.
It was also unlikely they would go ahead with one of the West Indians as their skipper: While Russell is injury-prone, Narine has failed to inspire as skipper of the franchise in the ILT20. It had to be Venkatesh with no other candidate standing out: The others in the team were either too inexperienced or weren’t certain starters.
Till Rahane was officially confirmed as the new captain. Rahane has led in 53 T20s in his career, winning 29. He has also led India in 11 matches across formats, including two T20Is, and continues to lead the Mumbai team domestically. Famous for captaining India to their most iconic series win against Australia in 2020/21, Rahane also has prior leadership experience in the IPL, having led Rajasthan Royals between 2018 and 2019. On the face of it, the decision made sense: Venkatesh has not led in a single T20 and in a format where quick decisions need to be made, sometimes at the cost of the steady output of statistical data, something Shreyas excelled at, Rahane had the upper hand.
However, it should be noted that Rahane had been removed as Rajasthan Royals captain midway through the 2019 season after his side lost six of their first eight games.
Rahane also has been in blazing T20 form heading into the 2025 IPL: He was the highest run-scorer in the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, averaging 58.62 at a strike rate of 164.56. He made five fifties in eight innings and was the only batter who crossed 450 runs in the tournament. It further added to his argument.
There were several captaincy candidates up for grabs in the auction, including Shreyas, who was bought by Punjab Kings for INR 26.75 crore, slightly more than what Venkatesh fetched. Reports suggest he wanted to skip the retention and test out his market value, and while KKR were keen to have him back, bidding aggressively for him at one stage, it was too steep a price.
Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul, the others in the auction and with leadership experience, have not set the stage on fire with their captaincy either. With no standout options, KKR decided to wait and watch on their captain, instead splurging on making an all-round squad. With the players left, they then picked the skipper they deemed fit. It may not be the worst move but whether Rahane, already 36, will lead for the next three seasons or KKR actively groom Venkatesh for a year or two under him, remains to be seen.
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