2 weeks Ago By Megha Mallick
India batter Ajinkya Rahane is in line to become the next captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League, according to a report in The Times of India. The veteran player, who has been leading Mumbai for a long time now and has tasted success with the domestic team, is now being seen as Shreyas Iyer's replacement at Kolkata. At the IPL 2025 mega auction last week, KKR picked up Rahane for his base price of Rs 1.
5 crore. Rahane played for the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 and 2024 and in the former, stunned one and all with his aggressive gameplay, which was not expected from him thanks to his classical style of playing. "Yes, at the moment it's 90% 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. Initial trends suggested that Kolkata were looking at Venkatesh Iyer as the next captain, having bought him for a whopping Rs 23.75 crore.
Rahane was recently removed as the captain of Mumbai for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Shreyas was handed the reins and it would be a tricky turnaround if he replaces Shreyas at Kolkata. The Mumbai Cricket Association seemingly made the change since Shreyas was the one in form and not Rahane. While Rahane is no longer a crucial cog in Indian cricket, his captaincy records speak for themselves.
In the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he led the team from the second to the fourth Test, to a brilliant series win in the absence of then-captain Virat Kohli and numerous injured players like Mohammed Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin. Rahane also led Mumbai to the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy title, their 42nd title in India's premier domestic competition. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Cricket, Sports and around the world.
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