Kolkata (West Bengal) [India]: With a brilliant 56 off 31 balls in their IPL 2025 opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Ajinkya Rahane quickly demonstrated his appropriateness in the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) batting order.

However, because KKR lost, there wasn’t much cause for celebration. The emphasis is now on a quick recovery as they play the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Guwahati on Wednesday. This is according to ESPNcricinfo.

Rahane said at the post-match news conference, “I hope you all enjoyed my innings rather than me enjoying my batting,” according to ESPNcricinfo.

“It all comes down to helping the team, and that’s what I care about. It’s always about the contribution, regardless of the number of runs I score. It would have been great if the winning team had scored 56 runs in an innings. But it’s okay,” he continued.

In his analysis of the loss, Rahane saw the pivotal moment as KKR’s spectacular collapse in the second part of their innings. With Rahane’s half-century and Sunil Narine’s 44, they seemed to be on track for a total over 200 at 107/1 after ten overs. KKR finished at 174/9 as their middle order, which is often the foundation of their batting, failed to take advantage of the situation.

Only 23 runs were scored by KKR in the last four overs, with the exception of Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 30 at number 5. That proved to be costly since RCB easily chased down the target and won with 22 balls remaining.

“It is the first game of the season and the batting line-up which we have, we have guys who like to go after the bowlers,” Rahane said.

“As a team, I thought there are a few areas we did well and there’s always areas we can improve,” he said.

“RCB bowled great in the powerplay, in my opinion, but what really stood out was how many wickets they took in the 13th and 14th overs [13th to 16th – they went from 125 for 3 to 150 for 6].” Those were important because they changed the momentum. There are players on this side who have performed well for this team in the past, so I don’t dwell on all the bad stuff. I will thus support them. “It didn’t work out in the game tonight, but it’s okay,” he said.

Rahane also supported the team’s choice to choose Quinton de Kock over Rahmanullah Gurbaz as their wicketkeeper-opener, even though de Kock had a difficult 2024 IPL season.

Rahane said, “Gurbaz is a fantastic player but you cannot play everyone,” according to ESPNcricinfo.

“That is how we must suit the mix. As a team, we thus believed that Quinton and Sunil opening together may be hazardous. “That [not using a left-right opening combination] doesn’t matter because you saw Phil Salt and Virat Kohli at the top of the other, two right-handers,” he said.

Regarding bowling, he underlined the need of backing up young pacers Spencer Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, and Harshit Rana. Despite their relative inexperience, Rahane maintained that their prior performances validated the trust in them, even if they struggled that evening, giving up a total of 105 runs in 8.2 overs for only one wicket.

Rahane said, “I don’t believe in making too many changes,” according to ESPNcricinfo.

“For fast bowlers, life may be difficult, and [Anrich] Nortje has been recovering from an injury. Vaibhav, Spencer, and Harshit have been performing well. Spencer is unique because of his left-arm angle. Therefore, we made sure to have a man who can move at a decent rate while maintaining that left-arm angle. He said, “Vaibhav has also been doing really well.”

“I prefer to support guys who have performed well for the team, and Harshit is a self-assured player. Every game, every season, is teaching him something new. It always comes down to demonstrating your faith and confidence in them. It was simply one of those days, and all three men are just as fantastic. “I have no doubt that they will recover,” he remarked.