IPL Playoff Predictions: These two teams are almost out of the IPL playoff race, captains will change in the next season

IPL Playoff Predictions: IPL 2026 has almost completed its first phase. In which the performance of many teams has been excellent, while some teams are repeating last year’s poor performance. These include, 9th placed Lucknow Super Giants and 10th placed Kolkata Knight Riders in the current points table. Now the path to the playoffs looks difficult for both these teams.

Read :- CSK announced the replacement of Ayush Mhatre, the bowler who has played for MI and RR got a chance.

Actually, Rishabh Pant-led Lucknow Super Giants and Ajinkya Rahane’s Kolkata Knight Riders have played seven matches each in the 19th season of IPL. During this period, Lucknow has won 2 out of 7 matches and has faced defeat 5 times. At the same time, Kolkata won only one match out of 7 and had to face defeat in 5, while one match was washed away due to rain. Both the teams have played 7 out of 14 matches in the league stage. If they have to reach the playoffs, they will have to win 6 of the remaining matches.

16 points are considered safe for playoff qualification in IPL. For which the net run rate should also be better. In such a situation, Lucknow needs 12 more points to reach 16 points. For this, Pant’s team will have to win 6 out of 7 matches. On the other hand, KKR have 3 points. They will have to win all the matches to reach the playoffs. Which seems almost impossible.

Crisis on captaincy of Rishabh Pant and Ajinkya Rahane

After the departure of KL Rahul, LSG bought Rishabh Pant for Rs 27 crore in the mega auction before the 2025 season, but Pant could not do justice to the huge price with his performance. Under his captaincy, LSG played 14 matches and was out of the playoff race with 6 wins and 8 losses. In the current season the team has lost 5 out of 7 matches.

Read :- ‘Saw a lot of tears in the dressing room, which did not happen even after winning the trophy in 2024…’ Varun Chakraborty said on KKR’s first win.

On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane was made the regular captain of KKR after the departure of Shreyas Iyer. Rahane was bought by KKR for Rs 1.5 crore in the mega auction before the 2025 season. Under his captaincy, KKR has won 7 and lost 12 in approximately 19 matches. Looking at the performance of these two captains, there is every possibility that the captaincy will be taken away from them in the next season.