Rinku snubbed as KKR officially announce captain for IPL 2026
Published - 17 Mar 2026, 05:28 PM | Updated - 17 Mar 2026, 05:50 PM
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The TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 is just weeks away. The teams have already started their preparation for the upcoming edition of the tournament. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have officially announced their captain for the upcoming edition of the competition. Ajinkya Rahane will lead the side for the IPL 2026 season.
Ajinkya Rahane was named as the captain for the side in the last season, and he did not have the best time as a captain, as KKR finished 7th in the points table and failed to qualify for the playoffs after being the winner of the 2024 edition of the tournament. Rahane was the leading scorer with the bat last season for the side.
KKR officially announces Ajinkya Rahane as captain
The Knights have undergone coaching changes; however, the management decided to stick with Rahane as the captain for the forthcoming IPL season. The experienced campaigner previously announced on his LinkedIn account that he will lead the franchise. However, today the franchise officially announced through a video on social media that Ajinkya Rahane will stay as the captain.
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Ajinkya Rahane, as a captain, won 5 matches and lost 7, with two matches being washed out. KKR finished on 12 points last season. After the dismal performance, there were reports that the franchise might move ahead of Rahane and make a new captain.
Ajinkya Rahane's captaincy record
| Category | Stats |
|---|---|
| Matches | 38 |
| Won | 14 |
| Lost | 23 |
| Tied/Draw | 2 / - |
| Win % | 36.84% |
KKR snubbed Rinku Singh from captaincy
Rinku Singh was favoured by former KKR batter Aakash Chopra to become the captain of the side. During the Trailblazers event organised by RevSportz, the cricketer turned commentator believed that the franchise was confused about choosing the captain, and they should have made the choice of captain before the auction, not during the closing moments.
Rinku Singh has the experience of captaining the Uttar Pradesh side in the UP T20 league, and also the state side as well. The Southpaw has been associated with the franchise for a long time and has been a match-winner for the side. Though he was overlooked for captaincy.
Rinku Singh captained the Meerut Maverics in the UPT20 League season. Later, he was named the captain of the Uttar Pradesh cricket team, succeeding Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season.
KKR look to make it four trophies
They went on to release Shreyas Iyer, their title-winning captain, ahead of the auction and picked Venkatesh Iyer in the previous edition of the auction for a whopping price of INR 23.75 crore. However, they did not make him the captain in the 2025 edition, and he also failed as a player and was released in the 2025 auction.
In the 2025 auction, the Purple and gold side went in with the biggest purse of INR 63 crores. They bought Cameron Green for INR 25.20 crore in the auction, which is the biggest buy of the season. They also bought Matheesha Pathirana for INR 18 crores.
The side announced Abhishek Nayar as the head coach, with Shane Watson as the assistant coach, Andre Russell as the power coach, and Tim Southee as the bowling coach for the IPL 2026 edition.
KKR squad
Ajinkya Rahane(C), Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Rovman Powell, Anukul Roy, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Matheesha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Umran Malik, Blessing Muzarabani.
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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) KKR Ajinkya Rahane Rinku Singh Indian Premier League IPL IPL 2026About the Author
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