Kolkata: Shreyas Iyer, who had shown his credentials as the captain of Delhi Capitals for close to three seasons before the shoulder injury did him in last year, gets another opportunity to prove his leadership skills when Kolkata Knight Riders expectedly named him as captain on Wednesday.
Iyer said in a statement after the appointment: “I am extremely honoured to have gotten the opportunity to lead a prestigious team like KKR. The IPL as a tournament brings the best players from different countries and cultures together and I look forward to leading this great group of very talented individuals.
‘‘I would like to thank the owners, management and support staff of KKR for giving me the opportunity to lead this team and I am confident that we will find the right synergies to achieve the team’s goals,’’ Iyer said.
The task before Iyer will be a challenging one as the KKR’s shopping in the auction has apparently a few chinks in the armour. They will have to rely on senior pro Ajinkya Rahane, who had been out of sync in the shortest format and hardly got game-time with his previous team Delhi, and former England opener Alex Hales on top of the order. The middle order, which lost Rahul Tripathi, will have to depend overtly on the likes of the skipper, Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana while the 36-year-old Sheldon Jackson is certainly a poor first choice wicketkeeper-batter after Dinesh Karthik.
They bought back Pat Cummins, the Australian Test captain, as the leader of their pace bowling pack and he could have been another possible contender for captaincy. However, the KKR management has placed their faith on an Indian international again after Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik after Eoin Morgan failed to reproduce his magic with England.
Head coach Brendon McCullum said: “I am very excited to have one of India’s brightest future leaders in Shreyas Iyer, take the reins at KKR. I’ve enjoyed Shreyas’ game and his captaincy skills from afar and now will look forward to working closely with him to drive forward the success and style of play we want at KKR”.
A two-time champion, the Knights had scripted a fine turnaround in the UAE leg of 2021 season when they finished runners-up to Chennai Super Kings.
