Where does Rahane fit in the scheme of things for KKR?

Kolkata Knight Riders might not have been able to retain Shubman Gill but they went for a quasi like-for-like replacement as soon as they could. Ajinkya Rahane was their first buy on the second day of the 2022 IPL Auction - and KKR didn't just gain a touch player in the same mould as Gill but also added years of experience and bonafide leadership skills. The latter, in fact, was gold dust for a franchise that had just let go of Eoin Morgan, a World Cup-winning captain who had led the team to the IPL final only a few months ago.

Nobody perhaps understood it better than Abhishek Nayar, the Assistant Coach at KKR who's also spent a good part of a decade alongside Rahane in Mumbai's dressing rooms. "He is an absolute team man. If there was one player who would stand out and you can consider a proper team man it is Ajinkya," Nayar had said after KKR's six-wicket win in their opening game. "I don't think he is approaching the IPL to make a comeback; I think he is approaching the IPL to help KKR win the title."

Rahane ended up making 44 off 34 in his first outing this season. This innings against Chennai Super Kings was exactly the kind of innings that the team had envisaged from him at the top. Jhanvi Mehta, the daughter of KKR co-owner Juhi Chawla, and who was present at the auction table, summed it up well after buying Rahane at his base price of Rs 1 crore.

"That was an amazing value buy for us. He's got amazing leadership qualities, he's been around for ages and he was the captain at Rajasthan, so he adds a lot of leadership. He's a solid opening batsman and can play the anchor role," Jhanvi had said. "We lost Shubman Gill who never entered the auction, which we were all very sad about. Ajinkya can fulfill that role well, he will allow Venky Iyer to play his game very freely. Venky is a free-flowing batsman and he will need a foil, which Rahane will provide very well."

But the foil has thinned over the weeks. Rahane's scores since the opening game have read 9(10), 12(11), 7(11) and 8(14). What his average of 16 and dismissals inside the PowerPlay have done is force Venkatesh Iyer into the role of an anchor. While that seemed to have worked against Mumbai Indians, it won't all the time. Especially when it doesn't fit well with how head coach Brendon McCullum wants his side to play the game.

McCullum has had his fair share of issues with batters not maximizing the new ball - and not without a reason. (The already slow pitches in India, if not for dew, often slow down further over the course of the match, and the tournament.) Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana, in particular, found it difficult last season to adapt to the tempo that McCullum had set for them upfront. In fact, the loss against Delhi Capitals had left McCullum utterly disappointed at the batters not being "more aggressive and more expressive" and the head coach had gone as far as saying that Prithvi Shaw's innings (82 off 41) was how they would like to play the game too.

"A saying that I've used throughout my career is that 'If you can't change a man, change the man'," McCullum had said after that seven-wicket loss to DC in Ahmedabad. "So we'll probably have to make some changes and try and bring in some fresh personnel who will hopefully take the game on a bit more." Venkatesh Iyer made his debut in the next game. It came in the UAE after a brief hiatus but Iyer was always in the plan and KKR never looked back that season from then on.

Fast forward a few months to this edition of IPL and McCullum is having to make do with nearly two anchors against the new ball. And admittedly on much better pitches than in the UAE. That's sacrilege in McCullum's world and was never in the plan and it begs the question: how long has Rahane got at the top? He's been brought in to allow the likes of Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Sam Billings, Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer play their natural game. There's been enough IPL to know that both the Iyers can adeptly play the anchor's role but KKR clearly don't want that.

Rahane isn't in this situation for the lack of trying. Against Mumbai Indians, his dismissal was everything you needed to see. Having made some room against Tymal Mills, he ended up being followed by a short ball which he top-edged to deep square leg. It was an uncharacteristic, ungainly pull off the front foot from Rahane, and if that bit of sore footage wasn't enough, his lowest score this season sat at odds with him becoming only the ninth Indian batter with 4000 IPL runs.

It's no doubt been a challenging few months for the 33-year-old, who was also dropped from the Indian Test team recently. Finding a new IPL franchise after warming the bench at DC for most of the last season was, after all, a short-lived cheer. Now he has Aaron Finch breathing down his neck and although the limitation to field only four overseas players might buy Rahane some time, a tougher task of looking relevant in the crash, bang and wallop of IPL is what awaits him next. How will he fare?