Ajinkya Rahane will remain Kolkata Knight Riders captain in IPL 2026 which begins on March 28. The IPL released the fixtures for the first 16 days of the tournament, featuring 20 matches, on Wednesday evening.
The rest of the fixtures is expected to be released once the dates for the Assembly elections, including Bengal’s, are announced.
Sources have confirmed to The Telegraph that Rahane will continue to lead the three-time champions. The KKR management had revamped the squad at the mini auction in December keeping him in mind as leader.
The Knight Riders finished eighth under his captaincy with 12 points from 14 matches last season.
The Knights decided to release Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, Moeen Ali and Rahmanullah Gurbaz among others while acquiring Australian all-rounder Cameron Green for ₹25.20 crore and Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana for ₹18 crore.
Injuries to Pathirana and Harshit Rana have been a big worry to the franchise in the lead-up to the tournament.
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru will face Sunrisers Hyderabad on the opening night of IPL 2026. The Knights play their first game on March 29.
The season-opener will be played on March 28 at the Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru, which was recently cleared by the Karnataka government.
However, the matches at the Chinnaswamy are subject to clearance from an expert committee constituted by the state government. “The committee will conduct a meeting and inspection of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 13, 2026, during which a full-scale mock demonstration of match-day arrangements will be carried out to assess the stadium’s preparedness for hosting IPL matches,” an IPL release said.
The second game of the opening weekend will feature Mumbai Indians and KKR Knight Riders at the Wankhede. The opening weekend will not feature double-headers.
The Knights will play three home matches in this phase — against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 2, Punjab Kings on April 6, and Lucknow Super Giants on April 9. All KKR matches will begin at 7.30pm.
All 10 teams will play four games each in this phase of the tournament, but the groupings haven’t been announced yet. The teams are generally split into two groups, with each team meeting their opponents in their same group twice each, and the teams in the opposite group once each.
Rajasthan Royals will finish their three Guwahati leg matches in this phase. Their other four home games are set be played at their original home ground, the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Two other teams have secondary home venues — RCB will play two matches in Raipur and Punjab Kings three in Dharamsala.
