The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have just lately named Ajinkya Rahane as their captain for the IPL 2025 season, with Venkatesh Iyer serving as vice-captain. This choice has sparked discussions amongst followers and analysts, notably given Iyer’s record-breaking public sale worth and his expressed curiosity in main the crew. Forward of the upcoming season of the cash-rich league, KKR CEO Venky Mysore just lately make clear the reasoning behind the franchise’s alternative.
Venky Mysore explains why Ajinkya Rahane was appointed as captain
Rahane, a seasoned cricketer with intensive management expertise, was seen as the perfect candidate to information KKR via the high-pressure IPL season. Rahane has beforehand captained India in Take a look at cricket, most notably main the crew to a historic collection victory in Australia throughout the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Moreover, he has captained IPL groups like Rajasthan Royals as effectively.
Additional, in home cricket, Rahane has been in stellar type, main Mumbai to titles in each the Irani Cup and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. His performances in T20s have been distinctive, scoring 469 runs in eight innings throughout the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at a mean of 58.62 and a strike charge of 164.56. These accomplishments underscore his capability to guide by instance on and off the sector.
“It takes a really regular hand, takes a whole lot of maturity and expertise, which we felt Ajinkya brings with him. He has performed 185 IPL video games, 200 worldwide video games throughout codecs. He has led India, led Mumbai in home, he’s led in IPL. And he has performed from season one in every of IPL. All that’s large. There must be no shock in any respect. From that perspective, we’re fortunate we have now bought Ajinkya, who can be terrific for us. Not solely as solely as a captain, of which there’s little question, but in addition as a batsman. He has scored tons of runs,” stated Mysore as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Additionally READ: From Sourav Ganguly to Ajinkya Rahane: Full record of KKR captains in IPL historical past
Why Venkatesh Iyer was not given captaincy position?
Venkatesh, who was KKR’s costliest purchase at INR 23.75 crore throughout the IPL 2025 mega public sale, had brazenly expressed his willingness to tackle the captaincy position. Nevertheless, Mysore clarified that whereas Iyer is very valued by the franchise and possesses management potential, they needed to make sure that he may concentrate on his sport with out the added strain of captaincy.
“IPL is kind of an intense match. Clearly, we expect very effectively of Venkatesh Iyer, however on the similar time, it [captaincy] is taxing on a teenager. We now have seen plenty of individuals having plenty of challenges with it [handling captaincy] as they go ahead,” added Mysore.