All posts tagged: KKR Captain

Simon Doull backs Ajinkya Rahane amid KKR captain’s strike rate debate

Simon Doull backs Ajinkya Rahane amid KKR captain’s strike rate debate

Published by Webster

2 min readApr 7, 2026 07:10 PM IST Former New Zealand seamer Simon Doull came to the defence Ajinkya Rahane after the Kolkata Knight Riders captain recently slammed questions over his batting strike rates in the IPL. After a mixed outing in KKR’s season opener against Mumbai Indians wherein Rahane struggled outside the batting Powerplay, the veteran Mumbaikar was irked by questions following a subsquent failure against the SunRisers Hyderabad. Taking questions after a second successive defeat last week, Rahane who fell for eight against SRH, said: “The people who’re talking about me, probably (they’re) not watching the matches, or they’ve certain other targets, they don’t like me playing. The amount of success I got, I guess, they’re jealous of me. I’m happy they’re talking about me, negative or positive.” Rahane found support from Doull who said the 37-year-old’s retort was not entirely misplaced. The Kiwi pundit also observed that Rahane’s record in recent seasons even stood ahead of his former India teammate Rohit Sharma, who is regarded as an aggressive batter in the format. …

What Shreyas Iyer told Yuzvendra Chahal and why he was confident they could defend 111 against KKR

What Shreyas Iyer told Yuzvendra Chahal and why he was confident they could defend 111 against KKR

Published by Webster

In 2018, when Gautam Gambhir stepped down as captain of Delhi Capitals midway during an IPL season due to his poor batting form, Shreyas Iyer took over the reins. He has looked back at that initial phase of captaincy when he was guided by Sourav Ganguly, team’s mentor, and Ricky Ponting, the head coach, in a rather delightful way: “I was like being in a Hamleys store (a toy shop), and these two big boys (Ganguly and Ponting) coming in and handling everything. It was amazing how they handled me. ?Before games, Dada (Ganguly) would call me to his room, to talk about what team we have to play; he was tactically very good and he has done the studies about all the teams,” Iyer once told Cricbuzz. “On the other side, Ponting is a very fun personality to be with.” Fast track to 2025, Iyer has come a long way, won an IPL title as KKR’s captain, and has now joined hands again with Ponting at Punjab Kings. His biggest test as captain came …

‘We played bad cricket as a batting unit’

‘We played bad cricket as a batting unit’

Published by Webster

Punjab Kings defended the lowest total in IPL history — 111 — against Kolkata Knight Riders in their 16-run win at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh PCA International Stadium at Mullanpur on Tuesday night, thus handing KKR their fourth loss this season. With the Ajinkya Rahane-led team lost eight wickets for 33 runs in their chase, the captain was critical of the batting unit of the team and took the blame as a captain. “It’s not like Punjab bowled very well. I think we played bad cricket as a batting unit. I take this responsibility as a captain that we couldn’t chase this down. But individually, I’m sure, all the players, especially the batters, will think about their own game and improve in the upcoming matches,” Rahane said while addressing the media post the match. It was the Kings’ fourth win in 17 home matches in the last two years. The home side had made a total of 111 runs in 20 overs. Kolkata Knight Riders were once placed at 62 for 2 in 7.3 overs during …

‘Ability to remove emotions from on-field decisions sign of great leader’

‘Ability to remove emotions from on-field decisions sign of great leader’

Published by Webster

Ajinkya Rahane’s assured captaincy in steering the Kolkata Knight Riders to victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday earned him plenty of praise, particularly since the defending champions had managed to shake off the effects of the heavy defeat against the Mumbai Indians just days before. Kolkata Knight Riders come into the IPL 2025 season as the defending champions but having lost the core of their leadership group, including captain Shreyas Iyer. Understandably, KKR have had a rollercoaster season this time around with two wins and two defeats in four IPL 2025 games. Starting the season with a heavy seven-wicket defeat against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, KKR bounced back with a heavy win over Rajasthan Royals. But then they lost to Mumbai Indians immediately afterwards by eight wickets in a bruising defeat. But KKR took a firm step in stabilising their rocky ship with the 80-run victory over the Hyderabad team. England cricketer Eoin Morgan was full of praise for the way Rahane had handed things for KKR. Story continues below this ad “KKR absolutely …

Full list of captains of all Indian Premier League teams announced ahead of new season

Full list of captains of all Indian Premier League teams announced ahead of new season

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With just over 10 days remaining for the IPL 2025 season, teams have started training together as they plot a way to claim the prestigious title. As many as five teams will go into IPL 2025 with new men taking over the reins of the team as there has been a massive churn in most teams heading into the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League, thanks to the mega auctions held recently. So far, Delhi Capitals remain the only team to not announce their captain. There are reports that KL Rahul has declined the captaincy of the team. The five teams who will have new captains heading into IPL 2025 are: Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings. Story continues below this ad Full list of IPL 2025 captains Mumbai Indians (MI) captain: Hardik Pandya Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain: Ruturaj Gaikwad Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain: Pat Cummins Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain: Sanju Samson Gujarat Titans (GT) captain: Shubman Gill Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain: Rajat Patidar …

IPL 2025 | ‘I’ll definitely do it, if it comes my way’: Venkatesh Iyer on Kolkata Knight Riders captaincy | Cricket News

IPL 2025 | ‘I’ll definitely do it, if it comes my way’: Venkatesh Iyer on Kolkata Knight Riders captaincy | Cricket News

Published by Webster

With the Indian Premier League season right around the corner, speculations have been rife about who will lead the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders after they let go of their title-winning skipper Shreyas Iyer. One name that has been brought up frequently is allrounder Venkatesh Iyer, who was not retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2025 auctions, but was bought back by them for a whopping Rs 23.75 crore. Venkatesh when asked about if he would want to lead the franchise gave his answer in affirmative in an interaction with ESPNcricinfo. “Definitely, I’m ready. Again, I’ve always said this: captaincy is just a tag. I believe in leadership. That is a bigger role to play, being a leader, There’s no ambiguity surrounding this. I’ll definitely do it, if it comes my way. There is no reason not to do it,” Iyer said. “You don’t necessarily need the tag of a captain to be a leader in your dressing room. You need to set examples. You need to be a good role model, both …

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: How Ajinkya Rahane has led the show for Mumbai in SMAT after IPL 2025 Auction pick | Cricket News

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: How Ajinkya Rahane has led the show for Mumbai in SMAT after IPL 2025 Auction pick | Cricket News

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Ajinkya Rahane has been the toast of Mumbai’s batting at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this season, after scoring back-to-back half-centuries in record-breaking run chases. Rahane has scored four half-centuries in his six innings of the tournament, and has led a stacked Mumbai batting line-up which also poses the likes of captain Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Shivam Dube and India’s T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav. Rahane was unsold in the first round of the IPL 2025 Mega Auction that took place last month, but he was eventually picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). His T20 form prior to the auction was not something that particularly stood out, but after KKR won the bid for him, Rahane went on a scoring blitz as all of his top performances of the ongoing SMAT season came after the auction. With Suryakumar Yadav’s return, Rahane moved up to opening with Prithvi Shaw after initially batting at No. 4 in the tournament. In their last group-stage match against Andhra, a loss would have meant Mumbai would have been knocked out …

IPL 2024: Shreyas Iyer declared fit to play for KKR, but with a rider | Ipl News

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SHREYAS Iyer, who had missed out the last two days of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy finals citing back issues, has been declared fit to play the IPL but with a rider. The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain, who joined the IPL franchise, has been advised that he can’t lunge too much while playing the forward defense as this could aggravate his injury. The Indian Express understands that Iyer visited a spine specialist in Mumbai after consultation with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Bangalore and the doctor has declared him fit to play with the precaution that he needs to be cautious while stretching his leg. “He is fit to play, a specialist spine doctor was consulted in Mumbai who has advised him not to stretch his leg too forward while defending the ball. He has joined IPL franchise KKR and he can play,” a source in the Indian board informed. Shreyas Iyer’s woes Iyer has been in the news for his fitness issues in the last few weeks. Despite him stating that he is facing back …