Explained: Why KKR Chose Ajinkya Rahane Over Venkatesh Iyer For IPL 2025 Captaincy
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Ajinkya Rahane was one of the contenders for the leadership besides Venkatesh Iyer, the India and Madhya Pradesh all-rounder.
Venkatesh Iyer has been named Ajinkya Rahane’s deputy at KKR (Picture credit: KKR)
Kolkata Knight Riders’ CEO Venky Mysore said that captaincy is taxing on a youngster. Since a leadership position requires a lot more maturity, the franchise decided to hand over captaincy to Ajinkya Rahane instead of Venkatesh Iyer.
Rahane was one of the contenders for the leadership besides Venkatesh Iyer, the India and Madhya Pradesh all-rounder.
Iyer was released after IPL 2024 but was purchased back by Kolkata in the IPL 2025 mega-auction for a whopping Rs 23.75 crore.
“IPL is quite an intense tournament. We think very well of Venkatesh Iyer, but at the same time, it [captaincy] is taxing on a youngster. We have seen lots of people having lots of challenges with it [handling captaincy] as they go forward,” Mysore said while speaking to ESPNCricinfo.
“It takes a very steady hand, takes a lot of maturity and experience, which we felt Ajinkya brings with him,” Mysore added.
Shreyas Iyer led Kolkata to the title in IPL 2024, but they couldn’t retain him as he chose to head back into the IPL 2025 mega auction, where he was purchased by the Punjab Kings.
Rahane, who was the first player to come up on the second day of the IPL 2025 mega auction in November, had gone unsold the first time of calling.
Kolkata got Rahane for his base price of Rs 1.5 crore at the end of the IPL 2025 mega-auction when teams got a chance to call back specific unsold cricketers.
This is Rahane’s second stint with Kolkata, having played seven games for them in IPL 2022, when they finished seventh.
Rahane has turned out for six teams in the IPL and is among a select group of cricketers to have been part of the league from its inception 17 years back.
Rahane has some experience leading India, is among the most successful skippers in domestic cricket and has led in 25 games across two IPL franchises, once at the Rising Pune Supergiants and the rest at the Rajasthan Royals.
Rahane is coming off a semifinal finish with Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, where he scored 467 runs in nine matches with one hundred to his name.
