{"id":150569,"date":"2026-04-02T23:10:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=150569"},"modified":"2026-04-02T23:10:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:40:54","slug":"ipl-2026-kkr-skipper-rahane-hits-back-at-critics-says-they-have-certain-agenda-against-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=150569","title":{"rendered":"IPL 2026: KKR skipper Rahane hits back at critics, says they have \u2018certain agenda\u2019 against him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-body-70818642\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane, on Thursday, said that people talking about his strike rate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) have \u201ccertain agenda\u201d against him and are \u201cjealous\u201d about the amount of success he has achieved.<\/p>\n<p>Rahane\u2019s strike rate has been 150 in the IPL this season so far, his highest since 2023. But it has still been a talking point, more so as he opens for KKR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I have one of the best strike rates so far from 2020. People who are talking about me, probably not watching the game, or they have a certain agenda against me. They don\u2019t like me playing,\u201d the 37-year-old Rahane said at the post-match press conference after KKR lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 65 runs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t like to watch me play. The amount of success which I got, I guess they are jealous of me. I am not too worried,\u201d said Rahane, who made 8 off 10 balls in KKR\u2019s 161 all out in 16 overs while chasing 227.<\/p>\n<p>Rahane made 67 off 40 balls in KKR\u2019s opening match on March 29 when it lost by six wickets to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALSO READ | <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/ipl\/kolkata-knight-riders-poor-bowling-vs-sunrisers-hyderabad-226-ipl-2026\/article70817076.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IPL 2026:        <i>Tele bhaja\u00a0<\/i>sizzles, KKR bowling fizzles at Eden against SRH<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople who are talking, they don\u2019t understand the game, and I think they want me to play a different kind of an inning. They didn\u2019t expect that Ajinkya Rahane would basically improve his game this much. So I am happy they are talking about me, negative or positive, either way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am really happy that they are talking, let them talk. But batting-wise, partner-wise, it\u2019s been amazing. We have a very good partnership in Mumbai.\u201d He said playing aggressive cricket in power play is risky, but he knew what he was doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor six overs, you always look to play fearless cricket. Play fearless cricket with freedom. At times, you will struggle. That\u2019s okay. It\u2019s important to accept. But I know what I am doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know what I did in the past, and I back myself rather than thinking about it. Whoever is talking about me, let them talk,\u201d said the former India Test vice-captain.<\/p>\n<p>Rahane also captained KKR last season. He had a strike rate of 147.73 last season, scoring 390 runs from 13 matches.<\/p>\n<p><i>(with inputs from PTI)<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time\" id=\"end-of-article\">Published on Apr 03, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/ipl\/ipl-2026-kkr-captain-ajinkya-rahane-comments-on-strike-rate-kolkata-knight-riders-team-news\/article70818642.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane, on Thursday, said that people talking about his strike rate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) have \u201ccertain agenda\u201d against him and are \u201cjealous\u201d about the amount of success he has achieved. Rahane\u2019s strike rate has been 150 in the IPL this season so far, his highest since&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC_4977.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-Dax","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/150570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}