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Indian batter and Test veteran Ajinkya Rahane is likely to lead the defending champions of Indian Premier League (IPL) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the upcoming edition. However, the franchise along with its key members, including KKR CEO Venky Mysore haven’t revealed the name of their skipper, but with the side re-signing Ajinkya Rahane at the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah last week, he is the top contender to take the helm.
According to reports in The Times of India, the veteran Indian batter is in line to take the captaincy reigns after the side let go off their IPL title winning skipper Shreyas Iyer ahead of the mega auction. At the mega auction on November 24 and 25, Ajinkya Rahane was signed by KKR for INR 1.5 Crore, whereas Venkatesh Iyer was their top buy, fetching INR 23.75 Cr.
Ajinkya Rahane likely to lead KKR in IPL 2025
Although, an official announcement by franchise is still awaited, a source told TOI, “Yes, at the moment it’s 90 per cent confirmed that Ajinkya will be new KKR captain. He was bought by KKR specifically to be a viable captaincy option.”
Earlier, speaking after the conclusion of two-day mega auction, KKR CEO Venky Mysore also opened up on the prospect of Ajinkya Rahane becoming the skipper of the side. “Well, you know that. To be honest, we have to sit down and take stock. Sometimes what happens is, after you've done all of these things, you just have to sit down, reflect, look at the whole thing. There are stakeholders and parts of the think tank won't be here. So we'll all sit down and have a proper chat about that, and I'm sure a proper decision will be made,” Mysore told the broadcasters.
Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2025 Squad
Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Mayank Markande, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Rovman Powell, Spencer Johnson, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Umran Malik
