Ajinkya Rahane, the experienced Indian cricketer, is set to make a strong comeback as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders for IPL 2025. Rahane was let go by Chennai Super Kings before the IPL 2025 mega auction, and KKR bought him for ₹1.5 crore, his base price.
Rahane, who is not currently favored by India’s selectors, was also recently replaced as Mumbai’s captain in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
According to The Times of India, three-time IPL winners KKR bought Rahane at the two-day auction in Jeddah because they saw him as a good captaincy option.
“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 as saying by the publication.
Rahane has been the captain of Rajasthan Royals before and has played for many IPL teams like Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Rising Pune Supergiant (now closed), and Chennai Super Kings.
This will be Rahane’s second time with KKR. He played for them in IPL 2022 but was released after a poor season, scoring only 133 runs in seven matches with a strike-rate of 103.91.
In IPL 2023, Rahane joined CSK and played much better. He scored 326 runs in 14 matches with a strike-rate of 172.49, helping CSK win their fifth IPL title. However, IPL 2024 was not as good for him. He scored 242 runs with a strike-rate of 123.47, and CSK did not make it to the playoffs.
KKR won the IPL 2024 title with Shreyas Iyer as captain. However, he was bought by Punjab Kings for a huge amount of ₹26.75 crore at the auction last month.
