KKR eye KL Rahul: The IPL 2026 auction is still a few months away, but the franchises have begun their preparations and planning for the event.
Since the IPL 2026 auction will be a mini-auction, teams will not release too many players and will avoid tinkering much with the plans they had laid down in the mega auction previously.
However, one team that is in a rejig mode is the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). It’s shocking that despite winning the IPL 2024 season, KKR have had to make multiple changes to their setup.
Firstly, their mentor and captain of the title-winning season, Gautam Gambhir and Shreyas Iyer, respectively, departed for various reasons.
While Gambhir joined Team India as the head coach, Iyer wasn’t retained or opted to put himself in the mega auction, where he was brought by Punjab Kings, whom he led to the runners-up position in IPL 2025 and gelled superbly with head coach Ricky Ponting.
In the absence of both Gambhir and Iyer, KKR finished eighth in IPL 2025 under new skipper Ajinkya Rahane. Recently, KKR also parted ways with their coach, Chandrakant Pandit. Pandit was with KKR for the last three seasons. He coached them to the IPL 2024 trophy, but most of their success is associated with Gambhir and Iyer.
KL Rahul to KKR? KKR eye KL Rahul in a trade with Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2026 auction
Now, KKR are reportedly looking for a new skipper to replace Rahane, whose position in the lineup as a batsman and captain is untenable. Rahane, in fact, had gone unsold in the first round in the last mega auction before KKR picked him up in the second round, after failing to acquire Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer; clearly, Rahane was not KKR’s first or even second or third option for captaincy at the auction table.
It has been reported by the Times of India that KKR are looking to rope in KL Rahul from Delhi Capitals in the trade window before the IPL 2026 mini-auction.
Veteran journalist Gaurav Gupta of TOI tweeted: “SOME IPL update: Hearing that Kolkata Knight Riders are really keen on acquiring KL Rahul via trade.”
While KKR may push for this trade to extreme levels and offer any of their own big players, it is unlikely that DC or Rahul would accept this trade. While DC failed to reach the playoffs, Rahul had a good time with the bat in IPL 2025 with Delhi, who were just one win short of qualifying for the playoffs.
In IPL 2025, while batting both in the top and middle order for Delhi, KL Rahul scored 539 runs in 13 games at an average of 53 and a strike rate of 149, notching up three fifties and a century. Though he doesn’t have the captaincy of Delhi, KL Rahul certainly enjoyed his time at his new franchise as a batsman and would be highly unlikely to leave DC.
Meanwhile, currently, KL Rahul is in England for the Test series, where he’s having the most prolific Test series of his career. He’s the second-leading run-scorer of the series after four Tests, with 511 runs at an average of 63, having hit two centuries and two fifties.
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