Ajinkya Rahane to captain KKR in IPL 2025: Decoding stats
What's the story
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the defending champions of IPL 2024, have named Ajinkya Rahane as their captain for the 2025 Indian Premier League.
The franchise announced the news on March 3. Along with Rahane's appointment, Venkatesh Iyer has also been appointed as the vice-captain.
The decision comes after KKR bought Rahane at his base price of ₹1.5 crore in the IPL mega auction in November last year.
Here we decode his IPL stats.
Player profile
Rahane's IPL journey: A statistical overview
Over his career, Rahane has represented six IPL teams - Rajasthan Royals, Rising Pune Supergiant, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and now KKR.
He has scored 4,642 runs across 185 games at an average of 30.14 with two centuries and 30 half-centuries to his name, as per ESPNcricinfo.
His phenomenal numbers also include 103 sixes and 478 fours with a strike rate of 123.42.
Franchise stats
Rahane's performance with different franchises
Rahane's performance fluctuated with franchises.
With Rajasthan Royals, he played 100 IPL matches and scored 2,810 runs at 34.26 with two centuries and 17 fifties.
His Mumbai Indians stint was less prolific where he scored only 148 runs in 10 matches at 18.50 (50s: 2).
For Rising Pune Supergiant, he scored 862 runs in just as many matches at 33.15 (50s: 8).
In 27 matches for CSK, he smashed 568 runs at 25.81 (50s: 2).
Leadership stats
Rahane's captaincy experience and performance
Rahane captained RR and RPS across 25 matches. He posted nine wins and 16 defeats. He has a win percentage of 36.
Notably, 24 of his matches as captain came for RR. Meanwhile, Rahane has managed just 583 runs at 25.34 while captaining in IPL (50s: 2).
In his only previous season with KKR in IPL 2022, he played seven matches scoring only 133 runs at 19.
Additional statistics
Rahane's T20 stats
Overall in T20s, Rahane has bagged 6,852 runs from 271 matches (255 innings).
He averages 29.66 and his strike rate reads 123.88. In addition to 2 centuries, he has 48 fifties. Rahane has spanked 693 fours and a total of 160 sixes.
375 of Rahane's T20 runs came for India (T20Is) at 20.83 (SR: 113.29). He has slammed one fifty.
DYK
Rahane's leadership journey and experience
Rahane's new role as captain is a major shift in his career. He was recently replaced as Mumbai's captain for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy by Shreyas Iyer.
However, Rahane brings a lot of experience to KKR, having led the Indian Test team in Australia (2020/21) to a historic series win.
Notably, his appointment comes as a surprise as many expected Venkatesh to take on the leadership role after being bought back by KKR for ₹23.75 crore this year.