Ajinkya Rahane will lead Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2025.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) announced Ajinkya Rahane as captain ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Venkatesh Iyer has been named as the vice-captain. Earlier, KKR parted ways with their title-winning skipper Shreyas Iyer.
Rahane was acquired for INR 1.50 crore at the mega auction, whereas Venkatesh was acquired for INR 23.75 crore. Both Rahane and Venkatesh have played for Kolkata Knight Riders previously.
The Mumbai batter spent the last two seasons with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He was part of the CSK side that won the IPL title in 2023 and scored 326 runs from 14 matches, including two fifties. However, he endured an underwhelming season in 2024, scoring 242 runs from 13 matches without a half-century or a century.
The 36-year-old had gone unsold in the initial stages of the IPL 2025 auction in Jeddah last year, but in the accelerated round later on, Kolkata Knight Riders got his services for his base price of INR 1.50 crore.
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Venkatesh Iyer has been loyal to the Knight Riders since his IPL debut in 2021. The batting all-rounder played his first game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Abu Dhabi. He opened the innings with Shubman Gill and scored 41 runs off 27 balls, helping his team win by nine wickets. To date, Venkatesh has played 50 IPL matches and has scored 1,326 runs at a strike rate of 137.13. He has slammed 11 fifties and one century. Venkatesh’s only century came against Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2023.
The 30-year-old had been rumoured to lead KKR but that role eventually went to Rahane, who played for the Knight Riders in 2022. Rahane, though, had a mediocre IPL campaign back then, scoring just 133 runs from seven matches at a strike rate of 103.91.
Kolkata Knight Riders will begin their IPL title defence with a home game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Eden Gardens on March 22.
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