Former KKR player Piyush Chawla has backed KKR’s decision to appoint Ajinkya Rahane as the team’s captain for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Chawla feels that Rahane has the experience on his side having led in domestic and international cricket before.
Cricketer-turned-commentator Deep Dasgupta agreed with Chawla’s thoughts and feels that Ajinkya Rahane has played the captaincy role to perfection before. Dasgupta is confident of Rahane’s leadership qualities and backed him to do well for KKR as well.
Rahane was officially appointed as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders just a few days before the IPL 2025 begins. While he has been named the team’s captain, Venkatesh Iyer has been appointed the team’s vice-captain.
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Piyush Chawla backs Ajinkya Rahane as KKR captain
During a conversation on Star Sports, Piyush Chawla spoke in favour of Ajinkya Rahane being appointed as KKR’s next captain. The former India legspinner believes that Rahane has the experience of leading India which makes him an automatic choice for the captaincy role.
“He (Ajinkya Rahane) looked exceptional in the last two years while playing for CSK. Apart from that, he has the experience. He has captained India and has captained in franchise cricket,” the former India spinner said.
“The challenge for any team after the mega auction is to set their playing XI. Even if you have retained your core, you have to set the remaining five or six players. The earlier they do that, the better it would be for the team,” he added.
Rahane played for Chennai Super Kings in two IPL seasons – 2023 and 2024. The Super Kings became the champions of IPL 2023 and Rahane played a big role in his team’s title-winning run. However, his numbers dipped in IPL 2024 which also had an effect on the team’s performances.
“Ajinkya is an excellent captain” – Deep Dasgupta
Deep Dasgupta totally agreed with Chawla’s sentiments and backed Ajinkya Rahane to play the role of a captain to perfection. Dasgupta cited Rahane’s experience of leading India in international and Mumbai in domestic cricket.
“What can be said about Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy? He has proven himself. He performed an excellent role as captain even while captaining India. So there is no dilemma about the captaincy. I believe Ajinkya is an excellent captain,” the former India wicketkeeper added.
Rahane has led India in 11 matches across formats in which the team won 8 matches. This also includes the matches in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21 where India registered a historic Test series win on Australian soil.
The 36-year-old has been leading Mumbai in red-ball cricket for the last two years. He is also one of the most successful captains in domestic cricket and has led in 25 matches in the IPL.
Ajinkya Rahane’s IPL numbers
Ajinkya Rahane has excellent IPL numbers and has loads of experience in the league. He has played 185 matches and scored 4642 runs at an average of 30.14 and a strike rate of 123.42. Overall, he has struck 2 hundreds and 30 fifties in IPL.
He has played a regular part in the last two seasons of IPL while playing for Chennai Super Kings. In IPL 2023, he scored 326 runs in 14 matches at an average of 32.60 and a strike rate of 172.49. However, his numbers declined in 2024 as he scored just 242 runs at an average of 20.17.
Rahane used to play as an opener earlier but transformed himself into a middle-order batter from 2023. He is versatile enough to play any role in the batting order which is an asset for his team.
