New DelhiWhen the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders left the field in the middle of their 2026 opening match against the Mumbai Indians, the team suffered a setback. After the fourth over of MI's chase of 221 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Rahane—who had earlier scored an amazing 67 from 40 balls—left the field.
Rahane was lying on the field in what appeared to be cramps just before the fifth over began while the KKR captain was being treated by the physiotherapist. With his teammates' assistance, he was removed from the field.
Who is in charge of KKR while Rahane is away?Rinku Singh, a batter for Star India, is the Knight Riders' vice-captain. He was given this job before the start of IPL 2026. Since his first game with KKR in 2018, Rinku has been an important part of the team.
A short history of KKR's IPL careerRinku is known as a designated finisher for the KKR team. He is a key player on the team and does the hard work of finishing games when the pressure is on.
He has played 59 IPL games and scored 11,132 runs at an average of 31.44 and a strike rate of 145.50. The 2023 IPL season was his best, when he scored 474 runs in 14 innings to help his team win the title. One of the best parts of the IPL was when he hit five straight sixes off Yash Dayal in the last five balls of the match to chase 30 in the last over.
KKR does well against MIThe Kolkata Knight Riders played very well against the Mumbai Indians, keeping a high run rate with aggressive stroke play and smart partnerships. Their middle order took advantage of the death overs by speeding up and taking advantage of openings. KKR's batting depth and strong match awareness were shown by the balanced contributions from all the players. Ajinkya Rahane led the way with 67 runs off 40 balls, Angkrish Raghuvanshi hit a quick 51, and Rinku Singh added a valuable 33 runs without getting out, giving KKR a big total.
The Kolkata Knight Riders' starting lineup is Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (w), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, and Blessing Muzarabani.
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Tilak Varma(c), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, and AM Ghazanfar.
Knight Riders of Kolkata Impact substitutes: Tejasvi Dahiya, Saurabh Dubey, Kartik Tyagi, and Rovman Powell
Suryakumar Yadav, Corbin Bosch, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, and Ashwani Kumar are the Mumbai Indians' impact substitutes.