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KKR confirms Rahane as captain, what lies ahead: chances and challenge

KKR confirms Ajinkya Rahane as captain for IPL 2026, with team balance and injuries emerging as major early challenges.

By Aritra Chatterjee

Mar 17, 2026 19:14 IST

Kolkata Knight Riders confirms that Ajimkya Rahane is going to be the captain for the next season, there were rumours that KKR would look beyond Rahane, but now all the speculation has ended. Before this Rahane has captained Kolkata in the last season and Rajasthan Royals and Rising Pune Super Giants in the IPL. Also, he served as Virat's deputy for a long time, under his captaincy, India clinched the 2021, Border-Gavaskar trophy on Australian soil.

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His performance in the IPL remained average but the calibre he brings to the captaincy is commendable. KKR released a video on social media to announce him as captain.

Rahane’s main task

The main problem Rahane will face in this season in picking the right eleven, in the 2025 season KKR failed to find the balance but this is new season with brand new management, KKR had a good auction but the injuries are scaring more than anything before the start of IPL, KKR has players like Tim Seifer, Finn Allen, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, with Sunil Narine's place in the playing XI is undoubtedly confirmed, they will have to fund the right balance on picking the foreign players.

Injury concerns

KKR has already brought Blessing Muzarabani in place of Mustafizur Rahman, but the scare does not end here, Pathirana and Harshit Rana are two of the front-line pace bowlers who are going to miss the IPL for this season. Though they have an Indian pace bowling core, it is mostly inexperienced. Rahane has to find the answer.

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Chances for Rahane

KKR has been able to get a bunch of quality players where they were lacking. With the mix of experience and young Indian talent, they can do well, but the bowling has to be fixed first.

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