Ajinkya Rahane has made a point about his suitability in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batting order in his first outing with the team itself, his 31-ball 56 the star turn in their innings against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL 2025 opener. He can’t look back and relish the innings, though, since it came in a defeat. Instead, the focus is to bounce back quickly as KKR fly to Guwahati to face Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Wednesday.
“I hope you all enjoyed my innings rather than me enjoying my batting,” Rahane said at the post-match press conference. “For me, it’s all about contributing for the team and that’s what matters to me. Whatever runs I score, it’s always about the contribution. An innings of 56 on the winning side would have been really nice. But it’s fine.”
Rahane said the rush of wickets in the lead-in to the death overs was where KKR lost their way – they slid from an impressive 107 for 1 in the tenth over to a tepid 174 for 9 after 20. Sunil Narine’s 44, an innings that started sluggishly, alongside Rahane’s half-century had set the base for a score in excess of 200, but the middle-order – KKR’s famed engine room – failed to make the most of it.
Barring No. 5 Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 30, the others fell quickly, and KKR scraped together only 23 runs in the last four overs. It was far from enough as RCB cruised to victory with 22 balls to spare.
“It is the first game of the season and the batting line-up which we have, we have guys who like to go after the bowlers,” Rahane, a new member of the team and its captain, said. “As a team, I thought there are a few areas we did well and there’s always areas we can improve.
“I thought RCB bowled really well in the powerplay, but important was how they picked up wickets in the 13th and 14th overs [13th to 16th – they went from 125 for 3 to 150 for 6]. Those were crucial since that was the momentum-changer. I don’t focus on all the negative things because this side has players who have done very well for this franchise in the past. So I’m going to back them. In the game tonight it didn’t work out, but it’s okay.”
Rahane also defended the selection of Quinton de Kock, who had one of his poorest IPL seasons in 2024 but was picked at the auction, over Rahmanullah Gurbaz as the wicketkeeper-opener.
“Gurbaz is a fantastic player but you cannot play everyone,” Rahane said. “We have to fit the combination in that manner. So we thought as a team that the pair of Quinton and Sunil opening can be dangerous. You saw Phil Salt and Virat Kohli at the top of the other, two right-handers, so that [not following a left-right opening combination] doesn’t matter.”
On the bowling front, Rahane said Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora and Spencer Johnson – the three fledgling fast bowlers in the KKR XI for Saturday – needed to be backed. He felt their past performances made up for their relative lack of experience even though they went for combined figures of 8.2-0-105-1 on the night.
“I don’t believe in making too many changes,” Rahane said. “[Anrich] Nortje has been coming out of an injury, and for fast bowlers it is a tough life. Harshit, Vaibhav and Spencer have been doing well. Spencer, with that left-arm angle, is different. So we made sure that we have that – a guy who can go with that left-arm angle with good pace. Vaibhav has also been doing really well.
“Harshit is a confident player and I would like to back players who has done well for the franchise. He’s learning from each and every game, each and every season. It’s always about showing that trust and faith in them. All three guys are equally good, and it was just one of those days. I’m sure they will bounce back.”
