Kolkata Knight Riders won their third IPL title in 2024. Then Shreyas Iyer was the captain of the team but after winning the title, the captain and the team parted ways. In such a situation, KKR appointed a new captain in IPL 2025 and this responsibility went to veteran Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane, who had earlier also commanded Rajasthan Royals.

The team's performance under Rahane's captaincy was poor last year and now in IPL 2026 too, the team has lost both its opening matches. But amid these results, captain Rahane himself is under attack because of his performance with the bat and now his anger has also erupted over this.

Did Rahane get angry after the defeat?

In the first match of IPL 2026 Kolkata Had to face defeat at the hands of 5-time champion Mumbai Indians. Then in the next match, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated them by a huge margin of 65 runs.

After the defeat against Hyderabad, captain Rahane looked very angry and the reason for this was the questions being raised on his batting. Rahane had scored 67 runs in 40 balls in the first match, whereas in the second match he scored only 8 runs in 10 balls. In such a situation, questions are being raised on his method, especially on increasing the pace of runs.

When Rahane came to the press conference after the defeat against SRH, he was asked a question about this and he expressed his displeasure. Rahane even said that those who criticize his batting have a special agenda and they are all jealous of him.

Referring to his performance, Rahane said, “I think I am one of the batsmen with the best strike rate since 2023. People who are talking about me, maybe they are not watching the match or maybe they have some motive against me. They do not like to watch me play.”

What do Rahane's statistics say in IPL?

Now the question is whether the criticism of Rahane's batting is correct? Or are the claims Rahane is making true? To know this we will have to look at the figures. Rahane stepped into Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 and made the team champion in that season by scoring 326 runs in 11 innings at an excellent strike rate of 172.

However, in 2024, he could score only 242 runs at a strike rate of 123. While playing for KKR last season, he scored the maximum 390 runs for the team in 12 innings at a strike rate of around 148.

In such a situation, there seems to be some truth in Rahane's words. Let us understand his performance from one more figure. In a report by Cricbuzz, the batting numbers in the powerplay have been released. Rahane is fourth in terms of strike rate among the batsmen who have faced at least 300 balls in the powerplay since IPL 2023.

Rahane has scored 552 runs in 329 balls in 31 innings. His strike rate is 167.78. Only Travis Head (187.98), Abhishek Sharma (176.56) and Phil Salt (173.8) are above him. That means he is ahead of stars like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shubman Gill.

KKR captain faces this problem

If seen from this perspective, Rahane is not wrong in defending himself. But a major reason for his current criticism is his slow batting after the powerplay, especially against the spinners. This was also visible in the first match of this season. He scored 36 runs in just 18 balls in the powerplay against Mumbai. Then he scored 14 more runs in the next 9 balls and scored a half-century in 27 balls. But after this, he could score only 16 runs in the next 13 balls till he got out. Overall, after the powerplay, he faced 25 balls and scored only 31 runs, which included only 2 sixes. In such a situation, this aspect of his batting is currently under question and it will remain so until he proves it wrong.