After Indian cricket retirement, Ajinkya Rahane to play for Amsterdam Flames in ETPL 2026 under Mitchell Marsh's captaincy

Recently retired from all forms of Indian cricket, Ajinkya Rahane has embarked on global T20 franchise league journey, starting with Amsterdam Flames of the European T20 Premier League (ETPL). On August 7, Rahane's signing was announced by Amsterdam Flames, a franchise whose co-founder and Chief Cricket Officer is former Australia captain Steve Waugh.

“Cricket has given me so much, and I’ve always believed that players have a responsibility to leave the game stronger than they found it. Europe is entering an exciting phase and has the potential to become one of cricket’s most promising frontiers,” Rahane said about playing the ETPL.

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Rahane will be playing under the leadership of Australia’s white-ball captain Mitchell Marsh. He will also play alongside Australia’s Steve Smith, Tim David and New Zealand all-rounder Michael Bracewell.

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Rahane is the second Indian player who will feature in the ETPL’s inaugural edition. The first is Ravichandran Ashwin who has been signed by Dublin Guardians as captain and mentor. India's legendary batter and former head coach Rahul Dravid is the co-owner of the Dublin Guardians franchise.

Rahane will make his ETPL debut against Rotterdam Dockers in the season opener on August 26. Rahane and Ashwin will go up against each other on September 5.

Rahane’s T20 career

38-year-old Rahane is nearing 8,000 runs in T20 cricket. From 308 T20 games, he has scored 7,968 runs from 291 innings, averaging just over 30. His T20 career strike rate is 126.77. He has two tons and 56 fifties in the format. For India, he has played 20 T20Is and scored a solitary half-century.

Rahane's IPL career began with Mumbai Indians (MI) and ended at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He scored 5,367 runs from 197 IPL innings, averaging 25.71. His IPL strike rate was 135.08. His both T20 centuries came in the IPL. He also scored 35 fifties in the competition. Rahane has also represented Rajasthan Royals (RR), now-defunct Rising Super Giants (RPS), Delhi Capitals (DC) and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He won the IPL with CSK in the 2023 edition.

Amsterdam Flames full squad for ETPL 2026 -

Mitchell Marsh (c), Steve Smith, Tim David, Michael Bracewell, David Payne, Richard Gleeson, Scott Edwards, Max O'Dowd, Bas de Leede, Kyle Klein, Aryan Dutt, Tim Pringle, Curtis Campher, Dipendra Singh Airee, Yuvraj Samra, Ali Hasan, Jordan Neill.