Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has noted that IPL 2025 presents KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane with a great opportunity to showcase himself as a captain again. He added that Rahane could help the franchise defend their Indian Premier League title for the first time as well. Notably, KKR won the IPL 2024 trophy under Shreyas Iyer’s leadership but couldn’t retain him for IPL 2025.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “There are plenty of opportunities. It’s both a challenge and opportunity for Rahane because if challenge is written on one side of a coin, opportunity is written on the other side. It’s a lifetime opportunity for Ajinkya Rahane. You are seeking redemption as a captain and you could take this team to the trophy. How beautiful this story could be. You go ahead and create something that has never been created before, or else, don’t do that, just repeat what happened last year.”

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However, Aakash Chopra also stated that Spencer Johnson has an opportunity to prove himself as an ideal replacement for pace bowler Mitchell Starc for the KKR in IPL 2025 as well.

“There is an opportunity for Spencer Johnson to become huge in reputation because he has to fill Mitchell Starc’s shoes. Mitchell Starc showed what he is made of right at the end. So can Spencer Johnson do a job like that? He was with the Gujarat Titans for some time. He hasn’t really set the world on fire, and if you leave one match, the Champions Trophy was also okay-okay,” he said.

“Chadu Pandit sahab. He takes his team to the title, whether it’s MP or Vidarbha, but this time with no Gautam Gambhir overseeing the proceedings, it will be all down to him. The one thing that came out against him was that he is very authoritarian, but Gautam came and probably changed that,” Aakash Chopra concluded.