The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season could be one filled with surprises. Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are without a skipper currently with Shreyas Iyer moving on from the franchise and being bought by Punjab Kings for a record price of Rs 26.75 crore at the IPL 2025 Mega Auction last week.
There was speculation at either Rinku Singh – who was KKR’s number one retention at Rs 13 crore – or all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who was bought for Rs 23.75 crore at the auction, could be in line to be the next captain of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise. But KKR is set to deliver a googly by picking a former Team India star as their next skipper.
Mumbai batter and former Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings player Ajinkya Rahane is favourite to lead KKR in IPL 2025, according to media reports. KKR bought Rahane at his base price of Rs 1.5 crore at the auction which culminated in Jeddah last week.
“Yes, at the moment it’s 90 per cent confirmed that Ajinkya will be the new KKR captain. He was bought by KKR specifically to be a viable captaincy option,” a source told The Times of India newspaper.
AJINKYA RAHANE EMERGE AS LEADING CONTENDER FOR KKR CAPTAIN
– A source said “Yes, at the moment it’s 90% confirmed that Ajinkya Rahane will be the new KKR Captain for IPL 2025”. (TOI). pic.twitter.com/oAdrHGERXL
Rahane played for the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 and 2024 and in the former, stunned one and all with his aggressive batting. He has led the Rajasthan Royals team in the past in the Indian Premier League. Rahane also led Mumbai to the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy title last year, their 42nd title in India’s premier domestic tournament.
The 36-year-old Mumbai batter has notched up 4,642 runs in 185 IPL matches till date at an average of 30.14 with 2 hundreds and 30 fifties at a strike-rate of 123.42. Rahane was recently removed as the captain of Mumbai for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 and Shreyas Iyer was handed the reins.
He was also the stand-in skipper for India in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and led the team from the second to the fourth Test when Virat Kohli had to fly back home for the birth of his daughter Vamika. Even with a second-string side, Rahane managed to lead India to a famous 2-1 series win.
