Ajinkya Rahane’s return for his base sum of Rs 1.5 crore to reigning IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has opened a new debate with regards to the captaincy of the side, that was left vacant after Shreyas Iyer was released. The debate grew louder after KKR bought back the services of young all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer for a whopping Rs 23.75 crore during the two-day IPL mega auction in Jeddah.

Having represented the three-time as well as defending champions, in 2022, the experienced Rahane’s return could possibly see him lead the franchise, but with Iyer expressing he was “more than happy” to take on the captaincy challenge, it would be interesting to see whom the KKR management eventually decides to entrust the responsibility.

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When KKR CEO Venky Mysore was asked about the idea of Ajinkya Rahane becoming the new captain after Shreyas Iyer’s move away, he said they will sit down and look at all factors before finalising a decision.
“Well, you know that. To be honest, we have to sit down and take stock. Sometimes what happens is, after you’ve done all of these things, you just have to sit down, reflect, look at the whole thing. There are stakeholders and parts of the think tank won’t be here. So we’ll all sit down and have a proper chat about that, and I’m sure a proper decision will be made,” Mysore was quoted as saying to the broadcasters.

Venkatesh Iyer had on Sunday expressed willingness to take up the role, moments after he was bought back by the Purple brigade on the first day of the auction.“I’ve always believed that captaincy is just a tag, but leadership is about creating an environment where everyone feels they can play for this team and contribute. If given the responsibility, I would be more than happy to take it on. Absolutely (I’m ready for it),” Iyer had said.

“Together, we will aim to defend the championship and continue our winning campaign. Thank you very much for picking me in your squad,” he added.

During the auction, KKR retained six players from their title-winning squad in IPL 2024 and bought back six more, including Iyer. They replaced Phil Salt and Mitchell Starc with Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje/Spencer Johnson.

Squad: Rinku Singh (retained), Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia, Ajinkya Rahane, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell (retained), Sunil Narine (retained), Ramandeep Singh (retained), Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Varun Chakravarthy (retained), Mayank Markande, Harshit Rana (retained), Vaibhav Arora, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Umran Malik.

Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals’ ploy of roping in KL Rahul, one of the three captains released from their respective franchises after IPL 2024, could see him take up the leadership role of the franchise. The addition of Rahul to the set-up will bolster their top order batting with the Karnataka right-hander scoring more than 500 in the past six seasons of the tournament, although his strike-rate has come under scanner on more than one occasion during the past couple of seasons.

Delhi also has bolstered their pace-bowling attack with the addition of Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan Mohit Sharma, and Dushmantha Chameera besides buying back Mukesh Kumar. In the absence of Rishabh Pant, Abishek Porel looks the likely contender to don the big gloves for the franchise in the IPL 2025 season, although Rahul gives them another handy wicketkeeping option.

Squad: Jake Fraser-McGurk (RTM), Harry Brook, Tristan Stubbs (retained), Faf du Plessis, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Abishek Porel (retained), Donovan Ferreria, Axar Patel (retained), Ashutosh Sharma, Sameer Rizvi, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Kuldeep Yadav (retained), Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan, Mohit Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera.

Mumbai Indians

Despite boasting of a strong core of Indian players, Mumbai Indians decided to go in with a rather unconventional approach with their overseas picks in the mega auction. Apart from Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner, the five-time IPL champions went in for another six with very less exposure to the IPL. England allrounder Will Jacks and fast bowler Reece Topley, South African quick Lizaad Williams and Afghanistan spinner Allah Ghazanfar have hardly started as first-choice for their previous franchises, while New Zealand’s Bevan-John Jacobs and South Africa’s Ryan Rickelton are untested elements.

Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (retained), Rohit Sharma (retained), Tilak Varma (retained), Bevan-John Jacobs, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Krishnan Shrijith, Hardik Pandya (retained), Naman Dhir (RTM), Will Jacks, Raj Angad Bawa, Vignesh Puthur, Allah Ghazanfar, Karn Sharma, Mitchell Santner, Jasprit Bumrah (retained), Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar, Reece Topley, Satyanarayana Raju, Arjun Tendulkar, Lizaad Williams

Chennai Super Kings

Ravichandran Ashwin has returned to reunite with old colleagues Ravindra Jadeja and Mahendra Singh Dhoni at his home franchise — Chennai Super Kings after a decade. The five-time IPL champions strengthened their top order with the addition of Devon Conway, and bough back Rachin Ravindra besides bolstering their spin department by adding Noor Ahmad. The Yellow Brigade also bought a fair number of players whose IPL careers are in need of a revival — Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Deepak Hooda and Shreyas Gopal.

Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (retained), Rahul Tripathi, Shaik Rasheed, Deepak Hooda, Andre Siddarth, Devon Conway, MS Dhoni (retained), Vansh Bedi, Ravindra Jadeja (retained), Shivam Dube (retained), R Ashwin, Sam Curran, Rachin Ravindra (RTM), Vijay Shankar, Anshul Kamboj, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Shreyas Gopal, Matheesha Pathirana (retained), Khaleel Ahmed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Mukesh Choudhary, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

As Dinesh Karthik pointed out, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru focussed on building “a strong bowling unit and a batting line-up that can be powerful and consistent throughout the tournament”. RCB bought the explosive Phil Salt to partner Virat Kohli at the top of the order, and also splurged big to acquire two experienced quicks in Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to address their bowling woes. Karthik also pointed out that the RCB invested consistently around the batting order, with an aim to go big.

Squad: Virat Kohli (retained), Rajat Patidar (retained), Tim David, Manoj Bhandage, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chikara, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Mohit Rathee, Suyash Sharma, Abhinandan Singh, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal (retained), Rasikh Salam, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Having retained their explosive top three in Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, along with seam-bowling allrounder Nitish Reddy and skipper Pat Cummins, the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise added more muscle in all departments with the addition of proven stars in Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Adam Zampa and others. Like MI, the Orange Army also invested in rookies in the form of Kamindu Mendis, Brydon Carse and Eshan Malinga.

Squad: Travis Head (retained), Abhinav Manohar, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Heinrich Klaasen (retained), Ishan Kishan, Atharva Taide, Abhishek Sharma (retained), Nitish Kumar Reddy (retained), Kamindu Mendis, Adam Zampa, Rahul Chahar, Zeeshan Ansari, Mohammed Shami, Pat Cummins (retained), Harshal Patel, Simarjeet Singh, Jaydev Unadkat, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga.

Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings went into the auction with the fattest purse, and expectedly splurged Rs 26.75 crore to acquire Shreyas Iyer, who is likely to be their new captain. They also invested heavily in buying Australians with five of their eight overseas imports from DownUnder, perhaps an effect of the growing influence of their new head coach Ricky Ponting. The addition of proven but ageing T20 stars in Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis will bolster their squad, but their fast bowling unit looks a bit undercooked despite the presence of Arshdeep Singh and Lockie Ferguson.

Squad: Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh (retained), Nehal Wadhera, Harnoor Singh Pannu, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Josh Inglis, Vishnu Vinod, Prabhsimran Singh (retained), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Azmatullah Omarzai, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pravin Dubey, Arshdeep Singh (RTM), Lockie Ferguson, Yash Thakur, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Kuldeep Sen, Xavier Bartlett.

Lucknow Super Giants

The Lucknow Super Giants scripted history by roping in Rishabh Pant — with a hefty price tag of Rs 27 crore, the highest ever in IPL history. Pant is certainly being eyed as the next captain, and even though they boast of an enviable top order, the lack of an Indian opener could complicate their case if one of their openers suffer a prolonged slump. The bowling attack however, has plenty of Indian options, which could offer them the balance when they have to choose four overseas players.

Squad: Aiden Markram, David Miller, Ayush Badoni (retained), Himmat Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran (retained), Aryan Juyal, Adbul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Arshin Kulkarni, Ravi Bishnoi (retained), M Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Mayank Yadav (retained), Mohsin Khan (retained), Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, Akash Singh, Shamar Joseph, Prince Yadav.

Rajasthan Royals

The inaugural IPL champions focussed on acquiring bowlers after having retained five of their batters. Having done so, the Rajasthan Royals also gambled by buying the injury-prone fast bowling duo of Jofra Archer and Maheesh Theekshana, besides bringing in two other overseas back-up players in Kwena Maphaka and Fazalhaq Farooqi, which means the bulk of the work will be on the Indian players.

Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal (retained), Shimron Hetmyer (retained), Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Sanju Samson (retained), Dhruv Jurel (retained), Kunal Singh Rathore, Riyan Parag (retained), Nitish Rana, Yudhvir Singh, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Kumar Kartikeya, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma (retained), Tushar Deshpande, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kwena Maphaka, Ashok Sharma.

Gujarat Titans

Former champions Gujarat Titans picked up three out of 12 marquee players – Jos Buttler, Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada – besides adding Prasidh Krishna to their attack. Their middle order doesn’t have a star cast but GT will hope Washington Sundar will shrug off his indifferent IPL form and have an impactful season with bat and ball.

Squad: Shubman Gill (retained), Sai Sudharsan (retained), Rahul Tewatia (retained), Sherfane Rutherford, Jos Buttler, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Rashid Khan (retained), Washington Sundar, M Shahrukh Khan (retained), Mahipal Lomror, Nishant Sindhu, Arshad Khan, Jayant Yadav, Glenn Phillips, Karim Janat, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gerald Coetzee, Gurnoor Brar, Ishant Sharma, Kulwant Khejroliya.