Ajinkya Rahane has told the Mumbai Cricket Association that he no longer wishes to captain the Ranji Trophy side, clearing the way for a younger figure to take charge of the 2025-26 campaign. The 37-year-old will, however, keep playing.
“Captaining and winning championships with the Mumbai team has been an absolute honour,” he wrote on social media. “With a new domestic season ahead, I believe it’s the right time to groom a new leader. And hence I’ve decided not to continue in the captaincy role. I remain fully committed to giving my best as a player and will continue my journey with MCA to help us win more trophies.”
That message went straight to the point, much as his decision does. Rahane’s call comes 18 months after he ended the side’s nine-year wait for a Ranji title, lifting their 42nd crown in March 2024. His own red-ball returns since then – 467 runs in 27 innings, just the one hundred – tell a story of a senior batter battling for rhythm, but his influence on the group has been more than numbers.
Former Mumbai assistant coach Vinayak Samant summed it up neatly. “Ajinkya gives youngsters space but also sets standards. If he thinks the dressing-room will benefit from a fresher voice, fair play to him,” Samant said.
White-ball cricket has been kinder. At the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy he piled up 469 runs at the top of the order and was named Player of the Tournament. In the 2025 IPL he captained Kolkata Knight Riders, topping their charts with 390 runs at 147.27 – decent strike-rate, middling results; KKR finished eighth.
Yet Rahane insists the longest format still fires him up. “I still want to play Test cricket,” he told Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton on Sky Sports earlier this summer. “I’m really passionate about playing Test cricket. I’m enjoying my cricket at the moment… I tried to have conversations with the selectors, but [there are] things as a player I cannot control. I got no response. As a player, all I can do is keep playing cricket, keep enjoying the game, and give my best each and every time.”
The determination is real enough. He even lugged training kit to London while on holiday, sneaking in nets at Lord’s. “The love for the game keeps me going,” he added in that chat.
Mumbai’s pre-season is already under way at the Buchi Babu Invitational in Chennai. With Rahane sitting out, 18-year-old opener Ayush Mhatre is captaining a young squad, an early audition in many eyes. Elsewhere, seamer-all-rounder Shardul Thakur – a key figure in the 2024-25 triumph – has been handed the West Zone captaincy for next month’s Duleep Trophy, a sign he, too, is part of broader leadership conversations.
An MCA official, preferring not to be named, acknowledged Rahane’s decision. “We respect Ajinkya’s call. The association will discuss the captaincy once the local tournaments finish, but his experience in the dressing-room remains invaluable.”
The timing feels considered: Rahane bows out as skipper while the memories of that 2024 title are still fresh, giving whoever follows a clean runway rather than a parachute-drop mid-season. Whether that successor is Mhatre, Thakur or someone else, Mumbai’s first task is replacing a calm head who, in Samant’s words, “always put the team’s ego ahead of his own.”
Rahane will now focus on runs. If they come, the selectors could yet revisit that Test ambition. If not, he has at least ensured the leadership baton is passed on his terms – tidy work for a middle-order batter well used to playing the situation in front of him.
