KKR Eyes Captaincy Future With India Batter Appointed As Ajinkya Rahane Deputy for IPL 2026

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have named India batter Rinku Singh as Ajinkya Rahane deputy for IPL 2026 season.

Rinku Singh Named as KKR Vice-Captain for IPL 2026

As IPL 2026 starts on March 28, KKR have announced their vice-captain for the season. Rinku Singh will take on this role. The news was shared by KKR managing director Venky Mysore at a pre-season event on Tuesday, March 24.

Rinku Singh was retained by the team for INR 13 crore before the IPL 2026 auction.

In IPL 2025, he scored 206 runs at an average of 29.42 and a strike rate of 153.73, facing only 134 balls throughout the season. This time, he may bat a little higher up the order.

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Trusted Performer Becomes Vice-Captain

Rinku Singh has been with KKR since his debut season in 2018. Since then, he has played 59 matches for the team and scored 1,099 runs in 51 innings at an average of 30.52 and a strike rate of 145.17, including four half-centuries. His best season came in 2023 when he scored 474 runs at an average of 59.25.

In the current KKR squad, Rinku has played more matches for the franchise than any other Indian player. It was expected that he would be made vice-captain, and he is widely loved by everyone in the team.

KKR have already made several changes to their squad ahead of the upcoming season. After the auction, Mustafizur Rahman had to be released from the team following BCCI instructions. Then Harshit Rana and Akash Deep were ruled out due to injuries.

The franchise has named Blessing Muzarabani as Mustafizur Rahman’s replacement and Saurabh Dubey as Akash Deep’s replacement.

KKR squad for IPL 2026 (updated as of March 24)

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh (vc), 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, Blessing Muzarabani, Vaibhav Arora, Matheesha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Umran Malik, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Saurabh Dubey.

KKR to Play Three Consecutive Games at Eden Gardens After Opening Match

KKR will begin their tournament on March 29 against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

After that, they will play three back-to-back matches at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, facing Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday, April 2, Punjab Kings on Monday, April 6, and Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday, April 9.

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