Kolkata : Ajinkya Rahane? Venkatesh Iyer? Rinku Singh, or Andre Russell? A big question mark regarding captaincy role of the defending and 3 times IPL champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2025, as they released and didn’t buy their previous captain Shreyas Iyer.
After leaving Shreyas, who went to Punjab Kings in auction, the position of a captain is left vacant. KKR went after 2 of the captaincy materials – Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane, but who’ll get the captaincy role is still not clear. There’s no official announcement till now.
While Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell or Rinku Singh are not so much highly experienced captains, Ajinkya Rahane is seasoned campaigner and carries high experience in captaincy having captained India, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai, getting good results. As of now, both Venkatesh and Rahane are frontrunners of leadership role.
Upon being asked regarding KKR captaincy to Rahane, the former Indian captain stated that the KKR management hasn’t chatted with him regarding captaincy in IPL 2025.
“They have not chatted about KKR captaincy with me at all. No such talks have taken place yet. No one knows anything as of now.If they’d have spoken, you journalists would’ve known about it and you guys would’ve been the ones informing me,” Rahane said jokingly. “Till then, I’ll not bother checking my phone.”
But he wouldn’t be shying away from the opportunity either, if it was presented to him.
“I have had to see a lot of different challenges,” Rahane said. “I have captained before, and I have found myself in a variety of situations over the years. I know how to handle any situation in front of me. That’s why I am always ready for whatever is thrown at me. That said, I have not got any news or any call. You guys will have to call and let me know if I am appointed captain. I will wait for that call [laughs].”
Rahane is currently captaining Mumbai in Ranji Trophy 2024-25 and will face Vidarbha in Semi Final 2 starting from February 17, 2025. He led them to Ranji win in previous edition.
