KKR Captain IPL 2026 marks a fresh chapter for the Kolkata Knight Riders as the team gears up for an exciting season.
With a mix of experienced campaigners and emerging talent, the captain’s leadership will be crucial in shaping strategies, managing high-pressure situations, and guiding KKR through the tournament.
Fans will be watching closely to see how the team balances consistency with aggressive gameplay to keep their title hopes alive in IPL 2026.
In the previous edition of the tournament, Kolkata Knight Riders were knocked out of the tournament with only 5 wins out of 14 games in the group stages.
Meanwhile, fans are also keen to check the IPL 2026 schedule to find out when the Kolkata Knight Riders will play their first match of the season.
KKR Captain IPL 2026
Ajinkya Rahane who named as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of the IPL 2025 season, has been retained as the captain. Under a revamped squad, the Kolkata Knight Riders will be aiming for their fourth title.
Check Out the full list of KKR Captains in IPL history below:
- Ajinkya Rahane: 2025-2026*
- Shreyas Iyer: 2022-2024
- Nitish Rana: 2023 (6 matches)
- Eoin Morgan: 2020-2021 (24 matches)
- Dinesh Karthik: 2018-2020 (37 matches)
- Jacques Kallis: 2011 (2 matches)
- Gautam Gambhir: 2011-2017
- Sourav Ganguly: 2008-2010
- Brendon McCullum: 2009 (13 matches)
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad for IPL 2026
Mustafizur Rahman has been exiled from the KKR 2026 squad ahead of the start of the season due to geopolitical tensions between the countries.
As a result Bangladesh refused to travel to India for Men’s T20 World Cup and withdrew from the tournament with ICC named Scotland as replacement.
| Player | Role | Nationality | Retained Price (INR) |
| Rinku Singh | Batter | Indian | INR 13 Cr |
| Varun Chakraborty | Bowler | Indian | INR 12 Cr |
| Sunil Narine | All‑rounder | West Indies | INR 12 Cr |
| Harshit Rana | Bowler | Indian | INR 4 Cr |
| Ramandeep Singh | Batter | Indian | INR 4 Cr |
| Angkrish Raghuvanshi | Batter | Indian | INR 3 Cr |
| Vaibhav Arora | Bowler | Indian | INR 1.80 Cr |
| Rovman Powell | Batter | West Indies | INR 1.50 Cr |
| Ajinkya Rahane | Batter | Indian | INR 1.50 Cr |
| Manish Pandey | Batter | Indian | INR 0.75 Cr |
| Umran Malik | Bowler | Indian | INR 0.75 Cr |
| Anukul Roy | All‑rounder | Indian | INR 0.40 Cr |
| Cameron Green | All-rounder | Australia | INR 25.20 Cr |
| Find Allen | Wk-Batter | New Zealand | INR 2 Cr |
| Tejasvi Singh | WK-Batter | India | INR 3 Cr |
| Matheesha Pathirana | Fast Bowler | Sri Lanka | INR 18 Cr |
| Tim Seifert | Wk-Batter | New Zealand | INR 1.5 Cr |
| Prashant Solanki | Leg-spin Bowler | India | INR 30 Lakh |
| Kartik Tyagi | Fast Bowler | India | INR 30 Lakh |
| Rahul Tripathi | Batsman | India | INR 75 Lakh |
| Sarthak Ranjan | All-rounder | India | INR 30 Lakh |
| Daksh Kamra | All-rounder | India | INR 30 Lakh |
| Rachin Ravindra | All-rounder | New Zealand | INR 2 Cr |
| Akash Deep | Fast Bowler | India | INR 1 Cr |
| Blessing Muzarabani | Fast bowler | Zimbabwe | INR 75 lakhs |
IPL 2026 Tournament Overview
As per the IPL 2026 schedule, the first match will be played between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad on 28 March 2026 in M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
The 19th edition of the Indian Premier League is set to be played between March 28 and May 31, 2026, in India. IPL teams will be categorised into two groups of five teams, where a total of 80 group matches will be played before the playoff round.
The IPL 2026 will follow a Group stage and Playoffs format, with the top four teams in the IPL 2026 points table advancing to the playoffs round.
Right before the tournament, as expected, the IPL 2026 withdrawal players list starts to fill, while the respective team will name the replacement players for the IPL 2026 season.
As a part of the season, BCCI has released the IPL 2026 squad, IPL 2026 live streaming, IPL 2026 ticket booking links, and IPL 2026 team jersey details right before the start of the tournament.
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