3 reasons why KKR should not consider Ajinkya Rahane for captaincy in IPL 2025
Till the time Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) make an official announcement, speculation regarding their captaincy choice for IPL 2025 will be rife. On Monday, a Times of India report called Ajinkya Rahane a "contender" for the leadership role, citing a source who said it was "90% confirmed" he'd be the captain.
Earlier, it seemed like Venkatesh Iyer was the front-runner to take the armband after the team paid a record ₹23.75 crore to get him back at the 2025 IPL mega auction. Venkatesh was also the third in KKR's leadership hierarchy after Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana, both of whom are no longer with the defending champions.
We have already discussed the pros and cons of making Venkatesh the skipper. There are not many pros for Rahane taking the charge and thus, below we analyze three reasons why he shouldn't be considered for the massive role:
#3 Is Ajinkya Rahane even a starter?
The first requirement of a captain in modern-day cricket is the player's primary skill. If you can't make a team's 11 as a batter/bowler/all-rounder, you shouldn't be seen as a potential captain.
Till eight to 10 years ago, Test cricket had specialist wicketkeepers and even some specialist captains because it was easier to accommodate such players in the longest format. Now when even Test cricket doesn't see such specialists, the stakes in T20 cricket where every ball counts are way too high to take passengers.
Rahane would find it hard to argue that he's a sure-shot starter in the team. There's definitely space for an Indian middle-order batter but he had a poor last season with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), scoring 242 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 123.46.
CSK saw his best form in the year before but still didn't bid for him this year. KKR should realize that despite Rahane's proven quality against pace and the ability to adapt to conditions -- which he has also shown through good form in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy -- his game has too many obvious weaknesses, especially against spin.
The Eden Gardens-based franchise got a first-hand experience of his frailties in IPL 2022 when he had to be dropped after seven innings. Both Manish Pandey and Luvnith Sisodia have a better case to make for the batting spot, thanks to their better performances in a KKR shirt and domestically in the Maharaja Trophy.
If a player comes with even a slice of doubt about whether he deserves to start in an IPL team, choosing him as a captain is like stomping on an axe. For, what happens after a few bad performances? How do you drop a captain at the start of a new cycle without ruining everything else?
#2 Horrible captaincy record
The second important skill in a potential captain is, well... captaincy. KKR's last captain Shreyas Iyer proved his worth at the Delhi Capitals, while Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik, too, had significant white-ball captaincy experience.
Rahane carries the massive achievement of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with him. However, his IPL captaincy record is extremely underwhelming. He captained the Rajasthan Royals and Rising Pune Supergiant in 25 matches and lost 16 -- his 64 percent loss percentage is the highest for all players with as many or more games captained than him.
In 2019, the Royals sacked Rahane from captaincy midway through the season due to poor results. In comparison, Shreyas and Gautam Gambhir have among the lowest percentages of losses in IPL.
It's not a surprise that the Mumbai state side has also trusted Shreyas, who's Rahane's junior, for captaincy. You don't need a data scientist to tell you that it would be a massive risk to give Rahane the reins when he has nothing to show for it in the IPL.
#1 Short-term solution that might not work
The only explanation for seeing Rahane as a captain could be the lack of experience in the likes of Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh. But what they give KKR is something Rahane can not -- familiarity and understanding of how the franchise works plus a love for a team that helped build their careers.
Rahane is 36 years old. His T20 game was never exemplary and has now declined -- that's the opposite of the kind of player KKR need as captain for the start of a new auction cycle.
It's a time when they can take risks with a young, untested leader because the team is largely settled and there would be an understanding that it took Shreyas three years to deliver the title, too. If a younger player fails this season, there are two more years to work on the issues but Rahane would be well past his prime in 2025 and 2026.
After winning the title, KKR don't need to play it so safely that they end up giving the team's wheel to a struggling T20 batter who has never proven himself as an IPL captain, doesn't know the team system, and is not young enough to build a project.