NEWS
Follow UsThere’s a high possibility that Ajinkya Rahane could lead defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the next edition of the Indian Premier League, the Times of India reported on December 2 (Monday).
The 36-year-old batter was bought in the auction at his base price of INR 1.5 crore. The Men in Purple are currently without a captain, with Shreyas Iyer being bought by Punjab Kings for a whopping INR 26.75 crore.
"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 told TOI.
There were reports suggesting that Venkatesh Iyer, who was purchased for INR 23.75 crore, could lead KKR in the IPL 2025 but Rahane has now emerged as the leading candidate.
Rahane has captained Rising Pune Supergiant (now defunct) and Rajasthan Royals in the past. He led the Supergiant in one game in 2017 but captained Rajasthan in 24 games across the next two seasons, winning nine and losing 15 matches. He hasn’t captained in IPL since then.
Rahane played for KKR in 2022 but could only score 133 runs in seven games at a strike rate of 103.91. He was released from the franchise and went to Chennai Super Kings, where he slammed 568 runs at an average of 25.82 and a strike rate of 147.5 across two editions.
Rahane, who is no longer part of the Indian set-up, was recently removed as the Mumbai captain for the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy. He was ironically replaced by Shreyas Iyer, the man he will likely replace as skipper at KKR.
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