The left-handed middle order batsman Nitish Rana was announced as the new captain for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of the 2023 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) competition which starts on March 31.
Nitish Rana has been named captain of the KKR side in place of Shreyas Iyer, their regular captain who has been injured and is certainly out of action for at least the first half of IPL 2023 tournament.
Shreyas Iyer has been struggling with a back injury since late last year and is also due for a surgery to get it corrected but it is yet to be decided if the star Indian player will go that route or not.
Nitish Rana was elected as the KKR captain by the franchise ahead of their season West Indies all-rounder Sunil Narine, who was also jointly seen as a leadership choice in the absence of Shreyas Iyer.
It must be noted that the senior West Indies player had captained Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the inaugural edition of the International League T20 but did not have a good time in the job since the team finished last among all six teams with just one victory and as many as eight defeats.
According to ESPNCricinfo, the two-time title winners KKR said in a statement that,”While we are hopeful that Shreyas will recover and participate at some stage in the IPL 2023 edition, we feel fortunate that Nitish, with the captaincy experience of having led his state side in white-ball cricket and the IPL experience he has had with KKR since 2018, will do a great job.”
“We are also confident that under head coach Chandrakant Pandit and the support staff, he will get all the support needed off the field, and the highly experienced leaders in the squad will provide all support that Nitish may need on the field. We wish him the best in his new role and Shreyas a full and speedy recovery,” KKR added.
Left-handed Delhi batsman Nitish Rana had joined Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of the 2018 season and since then has been a regular member of the squad. In 74 IPL matches for KKR, Nitish Rana has scored 1,744 runs at the strike rate of 135.61.
The 29-year-old Nitish Rana had finished as the second highest run scorer for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2022 with Shreyas Iyer being the leading scorer. Nitish Rana has been a responsible batsman in the middle order for Kolkata Knight Riders, and has made a strong impact with his disciplined batting which at times has been the backbone for KKR in the IPL competition.
The appointment of Nitish Rana as the captain is the latest development in the KKR camp who have also replaced their head coach Brendan McCullum with Chandrakant Pandit and former India cricketer and commentator Bharat Arun as the bowling coach.