Ajinkya Rahane To Surpass Kohli, Dhoni, Rohit In IPL 2025 Opener

The first match of IPL 2025 will feature Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) facing Royal Challengers Bangalore at Eden Gardens on March 22.

IPL 2025 kicks off on March 22 at Eden Gardens.

Source : PTI

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has surprised many by appointing veteran batsman Ajinkya Rahane as their captain for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, despite acquiring Venkatesh Iyer for a significantly higher price.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) acquired Venkatesh Iyer for Rs 23.75 crore, while Rahane was bought for just Rs 1.5 crore in the escalated round. The franchise chose Rahane to lead the team in IPL 2025, defying expectations.

First Indian player to lead 3 different IPL franchises

As IPL 2025 kicks off on March 22 at Eden Gardens, Ajinkya Rahane's captaincy will make him the first Indian player to lead three different IPL franchises.

He previously captained Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) in 2017 and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2018 and 2019. This achievement sets him apart from other prominent Indian captains like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have led only one IPL team, and MS Dhoni, who has captained two.

The first match of IPL 2025 will feature Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) facing Royal Challengers Bangalore at Eden Gardens on March 22. Rahane brings a wealth of captaincy experience, having led teams in 25 IPL matches.

Though Rahane had a subdued IPL 2024 season with Chennai Super Kings, he bounced back with an impressive Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign, finishing as the tournament’s top scorer with 469 runs at a strike rate of 164.56. With 25 matches of IPL captaincy experience, he now steps into a new challenge as KKR's leader.

Franchise CEO Venky Mysore stated in an interview that Rahane's extensive experience and composure in managing the high-pressure environment of the IPL made him the natural choice to captain KKR.

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KKR squad for IPL 2025: Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Anrich Nortje, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Umran Malik