 "Ajinkya Rahane is being slammed after defending champions KKR failed to qualify for playoffs. Image: Reuters")
Former India opener Virender Sehwag has slammed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane for his batting order decisions in the recent matches. Speaking on Cricbuzz, Sehwag said that being a captain doesn’t mean one has to always bat in the top three positions.
Sehwag slams Rahane
Sehwag pointed out that Lucknow Super Giants did the same with Rishabh Pant, who was not in good form in IPL 2025 . He said that KKR had the chance to do something similar but failed to do so. Sehwag blamed both Rahane and the team management for not taking bold calls.
“It is not written anywhere that a captain has to bat in the top three. Look at Rishabh Pant. He was sending players ahead of him because they were in form, and LSG took full advantage of that. KKR could have done the same. This was the team management and the coaching staff’s responsibility,” Sehwag said.
“See, even CSK did it against GT. Shivam Dube and Dewald Brevis came up the order, they changed that up from the recent matches,” he added.
Rahane defends strategy
KKR’s tactics have faced heavy criticism following their disappointing performances, which ultimately cost them a spot in the IPL 2025 playoffs. Coming into the season as defending champions, the team struggled to repeat last year’s success under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane.
Batting was their biggest weakness this season with their most expensive player Venkatesh Iyer failing to deliver throughout the tournament. Other batters also failed to perform consistently and the side eventually finished with just five wins in 14 matches. Rahane was their top run-scorer with 390 runs in 13 games.
In their final league stage game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, KKR conceded a whopping 278 runs. After that, they were bowled out for 168 runs in 18.3 overs, losing the match by a massive margin of 110 runs. After the match, Rahane said he would have loved to open for KKR, but he didn’t do it because of the team combination.
“Yes, I’d love to open. I’ve done well in Mushtaq Ali and other formats as an opener. But it’s about what the team needs," he said.