 "Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane with head coach Chandrakant Pandit at a training session ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League. PTI")
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders’s (KKR) decision to part ways with captain Shreyas Iyer ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction took the cricketing world by surprise, especially since a title-winning captain usually is top priority for a franchise when it comes to their retentions. That, however, wasn’t all from the ‘Purple Brigade’ as far as surprising decision go, with the franchise later naming Ajinkya Rahane as their skipper for the upcoming season.
The Knight Riders were expected to name another Iyer as their captain after releasing Shreyas, who would end up being named Punjab Kings’ new captain after getting bought for a staggering Rs 26.75 crore .
Seam-bowling all-rounder Venkatesh has been one of their standout players in recent seasons and had played a major role in helping the team win its third title last year, and is widely seen not just as a member of the team’s core group but also a future leader.
KKR CEO Venky Mysore backs Ajinkya Rahane’s ‘maturity and experience’
KKR CEO Venky Mysore, however, has explained why the franchise decided to name Rahane as the captain and Venkatesh as his deputy for this season.
“IPL is quite an intense tournament. We think very well of Venkatesh Iyer, but at the same time, it (captaincy) is taxing on a youngster. We have seen lots of people having lots of challenges with it (handling captaincy) as they go forward,” Mysore told ESPNCricinfo.
“It takes a very steady hand, takes a lot of maturity and experience, which we felt Ajinkya brings with him,” he added.
Rahane was part of the player pool heading into the mega auction in Jeddah, and was overlooked by franchises across two days of bidding until KKR bought the 36-year-old Mumbai cricketer at his base price of Rs 1.5 crore .
Impact Shorts
View AllRahane, however, is widely respected across the Indian cricket fraternity for his leadership skills – having led the Indian team to an epic 2-1 triumph in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy besides helping Mumbai win the Ranji Trophy for a record-extending 42nd time last season. As for the IPL, Rahane had previously captained the Rajasthan Royals franchise in the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
As a batter, Rahane offers KKR a decent pinch-hitting option in the middle order, having reinvented himself as a batter during his stint with the Chennai Super Kings. Rahane had produced several quickfire cameos for the MS Dhoni-led side that had won the 2023 edition.