Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore revealed that the experience and maturity of Ajinkya Rahane put him ahead of Venkatesh Iyer in the captaincy race. He mentioned the difficulties a captain faces during an IPL season.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders have appointed Ajinkya Rahane as their captain for the IPL 2025 season. The likes of Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine were in contention but the team management backed the experience of Rahane. However, the Mumbai cricketer wasn’t KKR’s first-choice player in the IPL auction and that’s why his appointment made the team look like a desperate move after missing out on possible captaincy options.
KKR CEO Venky Mysore however isn’t bothered about the noise and noted that Venkatesh’s name was discussed but they wanted more ‘maturity and experience’ and for the same reason, Rahane got the final nod. Notably, the all-rounder was bought for INR 23.75 crore in the IPL auction and has been named as the vice-captain of the side.
“IPL is quite an intense tournament. Clearly, we think very well of Venkatesh Iyer, but at the same time it [captaincy] is taxing on a youngster. We have seen lots of people having lots of challenges with it [handling captaincy] as they go forward. It takes a very steady hand, takes a lot of maturity and experience which we felt Ajinkya brings with him,” Mysore told ESPNcricinfo.
“He has played 185 IPL games, 200 international games across formats. He has led India, led Mumbai in domestic, he’s led in IPL. And he has played from season one of IPL. All that is massive. There should be no surprise at all [on appointing Rahane as captain],” he added.
Mysore reminded that captaincy is not generally about leading the team on the field but it takes a lot of effort to guide them off the field. He noted that there are usually plenty of expectations from the captain as he deals with the diversity within the team and then there are media interactions as well. For the same reason, he believes that Rahane is the perfect candidate to lead the team in the next edition, especially after winning a title.
“There’s a lot of [other] stuff when it comes to IPL, including dealing with media, and there will be expectation in terms of the captain. At the same time, it is a new cycle, there is diversity in the team, if you have to be a successful captain you have to invest in building relationships with everybody And then there’s preparatory stuff in terms of camps, bowlers’ meetings, batters’ meetings, interaction with coaches – that’s a lot to take in. From that perspective we are lucky we have got Ajinkya,” he mentioned.