IPL: Can captain Rahane turn it around for the Knights after a poor 2025?

At 37 years, Ajinkya Rahane is one of the last man standing of his generation among the IPL captains – not to speak of being the oldest this season. His peers like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been there and done that with captaincy, while the likes of Shikhar Dhawan and Ravi Ashwin have signed off from the league as well.

While Rahane’s class as a batter had never been in question despite a somewhat chequered career, the pint-sized Mumbaikar had revelled in IPL captaincy in his previous stint with Rajasthan Royals many a seasons back. His seniority as a player, not to speak of a lack of option after Shreyas Iyer was released, saw Kolkata Knight Riders hoist him as captain last year when the 2024 champions slumped to eighth position.

A season when the Knights had to pay for their batting frailties, though Rahane emerged as their highest scorer with 390 runs. The captaincy, however, had come under scanner and someone like S. Badrinath – a former Chennai Super Kings player – minced no words when he referred to Rahane the captain as their weak link. A tag which the veteran would like to shed in his second year as captain when the team management had opted for continuity and pumped in the biggest purse for a change of fortunes.     

“I’ve been leading the team since last year and really grateful to the franchise that they gave me this responsibility to lead the team. Taking everything in my stride, taking everything in a positive way. There are always opportunities, there are challenges, you always see opportunities,’’ remarked Jinx, as he is nicknamed as, in the franchise’s first-ever press conference of the season at the Eden on Friday. The Knights have started converging at their base since 18 March (Wednesday) for a camp and will leave for Mumbai to open their campaign against Mumbai Indians on 29 March.

The camp had an extra buzz on Friday with the New Zealand trio of Tim Seifert, Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra joining the purple shirts as the Knights played a practice match among themselves to get some early clues among the team composition. The squad is expecting Australian allrounder Cameron Green, who fetched a record price tag of Rs 25.20 crores in the mini auction, by this weekend while the Knights management were relieved at the news that Matheesa Pathirana – the Sri Lankan slingshot pace bowler – has received the NOC from Cricket South Africa. Pathirana, however, is in the middle of a rehab in his country and is expected to join the KKR squad in mid-April.

Coming back to Rahane, it would be interesting to see where head coach Abhishek Nayar would like to slot him in the batting order after their recent acquisitions – what with the last T20 World Cup setting explosive benchmarks in terms of powerplay scores and totals. Ever so the classicist, the senior pro had converted himself into a Rahane 2.0 ever since the 2023 IPL with a clear mandate from Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Rahane showed he could be adventurous and still play cricketing shots, something which made him relevant in franchise cricket all over again, but his philosophy hasn’t changed over much. ‘’As a batting unit, you still have to go out there and assess the conditions and play accordingly. You have got to respect the game and opposition and it’s not as if even before the game starts, you start thinking about a 250-plus total,’’ said Rahane, who has 5032 IPL runs to back him from 198 matches.KKR, incidentally, is the sixth franchise for the battle hardened cricketer after Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiant, Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings. The weight of expectations will be seriously high on him after a below par first season as captain in 2025 – what with the team having covered all the bases quite well.

Setting an early momentum against MI in the first game at the later’s fortress – home for Ajinkya too – could be the ideal start for the SRK-owned outfit!