Nitish Rana has express great excitement after being handed over the captaincy in absence of Shreyas Iyer. He said it is a great opportunity for him to showcase his leadership skills and use his experience to bring the best out from my team.
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Nitish Rana was named new captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in a statement released yesterday.
“KKR has been my home since 2018 and It’s an honour to lead them. This captaincy instils my belief of performing at the highest level. It’s a great opportunity for me to showcase my leadership skills and I will be using all my experience to not just bring the best out of me but also from my team. I also wish for a speedy recovery for Shreyas and I am looking forward to the new challenge ahead of me,” he said.
Having joined KKR in 2018, Rana has experience leading Delhi’s domestic cricket team in 12 T20 matches during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, with a record of eight wins and four losses. He will assume the role of captain in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, who is currently sidelined due to a back injury.
Rana shared his pride in leading KKR, a team he has considered home since 2018, and explained that this new responsibility reinforces his commitment to performing at the highest level. He acknowledged the opportunity to exhibit his leadership skills and pledged to draw from his experience to bring out the best in both himself and his teammates. Additionally, Rana wished Iyer a swift recovery and expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming challenge.
The 29-year-old has scored 450 runs in 14 innings at Eden Gardens for KKR, with an average of 34.62 and a strike rate of 140.19. Across his IPL career, Rana has amassed 2181 runs in 91 matches, averaging 28.32 and maintaining a strike rate of 134.22, including 15 half-centuries.
When announcing Rana’s captaincy for IPL 2023, KKR expressed optimism that Iyer would recover and potentially participate in the tournament later on. Rana, a valuable component of KKR’s batting lineup since 2018, is also a skilled off-spin bowler and made his ODI and T20I debut for India in 2021.
KKR’s IPL 2023 campaign will kick off against Punjab Kings on April 1 at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. Their first home match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, will be against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 6.
2023 Kolkata Knight Riders IPL Schedule Squad:
Nitish Rana (Captain), Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Mandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Shakib Al Hasan, David Wiese, Andre Russell, N Jagadeesan, Litton Das, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Vaibhav Arora, Lockie Ferguson, Harshit Rana, Kulwant Khejroliya, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Suyash Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakaravarthy and Umesh Yadav
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