India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane is leaving Rajasthan Royals to play for Delhi Capitals in the next edition of Indian Premier League. The trade will be completed by Thursday, before the transfer window closes.
Rahane has a price tag of R4 crore. It is learnt Royals would be getting two Delhi Capitals players in return. Delhi Capitals have been in talks with Royals for a few months now to acquire Rahane and add solidity to their batting. When negotiations first began, Sourav Ganguly, who thinks of Rahane as an all-format player, was still an advisor with Delhi Capitals.
Rahane will be joining a batting line-up in which the top-order includes Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw and the middle-order has skipper Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Hanuma Vihari. Rahane had reasons to feel unhappy at RR after he was axed as skipper eight games into the last season and Steve Smith handed the job.
Rahane will get to work under head coach Ricky Ponting and join forces with personal coach Pravin Amre, a talent scout with the Delhi franchise. Rahane had been with Rajasthan Royals since 2011. He led the side in 2018 as well.
Rahane’s IPL record is a lot more impressive than his international white-ball numbers, having scored 3,820 runs at a strike rate of 122.
