IPL trade rumour: KKR unsure about Venkatesh Iyer, in search of new skipper for 2026 edition

KKR had an ordinary IPL 2025 season, and the team management could just look to change things around for IPL 2026.

After a long, long time, there is yet another IPL trade rumour that has come to the light. Team KKR had a disastrous IPL 2025 season, where they could only finish eighth in the points table, with 5 wins and seven losses. Ajinkya Rahane was ordinary as the skipper, while his deputy, Venkatesh Iyer who was bagged for INR 23.75 Cr, had a poor run too.

KKR unsure about Ajinkya Rahane & Venkatesh Iyer?

So, as per the latest, KKR is committed to finding a new skipper for IPL 2026. But then his batting numbers were just fine, as he went on to score 390 in 13 matches at an average of 35, and a strike-rate of 147. That means, the team could very well be looking at their long-time player Rinku Singh, to take over the reigns of the team.

Apart from that, KKRVibe suggested on X, that the team management is still unsure about Venkatesh Iyer’s future. The VC isn’t used as a fast bowler anymore, and his batting was a failure, with him only scoring 142 runs in 11 matches. Those came at an average of 20, where his highest was 60.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi in leadership role?

His release, if at all, could give KKR enough money to add two more value players, but of course there still isn’t any sort of confirmation on that. Meanwhile, there were earlier reports which said that young batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who has been with the team since 2024, could be in the loop for a leadership role too.

KKR IPL 2025 Squad: Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer (Rs. 23.75 crore), Quinton de Kock (Rs. 3.60 crore), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Rs. 2 crore), Anrich Nortje (Rs. 6.50 crore), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Rs. 3 crore), Vaibhav Arora (Rs. 1.80 crore), Mayank Markande (Rs. 30 lakh), Rovman Powell (Rs. 1.50 crore), Manish Pandey (Rs. 75 lakh), Spencer Johnson (Rs. 2.80 crore), Luvnith Sisodia (Rs. 30 lakh), Ajinkya Rahane (Rs. 1.50 lakh), Anukul Roy (Rs. 40 lakh), Moeen Ali (Rs. 2 crore), Umran Malik (Rs. 75 lakh).

(*This copy is purely based on rumour)