Kolkata Knight Riders have appointed Nitish Rana as the captain for IPL 2023. Shreyas Iyer will not feature for KKR this season because of a reoccurrence back injury that he suffered during the 4th Test match against Australia at Ahmedabad.
Shreyas Iyer was appointed the captain of KKR last season but could not take his side to the playoff stage. They won 6 matches and lost 8 during the 2022 edition of IPL. The experienced Andre Russell could have been an ideal choice for captaincy because of the experience that he has in franchise cricket.
Nitish Rana looked in superb touch right last year with the bat scoring 361 runs from 14 matches ( 14 innings) with 2 half-centuries to his name including the best score of 57. He showed his class with the bat scoring at a strike rate of 143.82 and an average of 27.77.
Rana has captained Delhi in 12 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and has been in the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise since 2018. Kolkata Knight Riders would look to forget their performance and start fresh in the upcoming season starting on 31 March 2023. They will take on Punjab Kings on 1 April at PCA Stadium, Mohali.
KKR bought a few good players including Narayana Jagadeesan for 90 Lakhs, Vaibhav Arora for 60 Lakhs, Suyash Sharma for 20 Lakhs, David Wiese for 1 Crore, Kulwant Khejroliya for 20 Lakhs, Liton Das for 50 Lakhs, Mandeep Singh 50 Lakhs and Shakib AL Hasan for 1.5 Crore.
They retained Nitish Rana, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz traded from Gujarat Titans, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Shardul Thakur traded from Delhi Capitals, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakvarthy, Anukul Roy, and Rinku Singh.
It promises to be an exciting challenge for young Nitish Rana to captain the KKR side. KKR would look for making KKR their fortress as they play 7 matches at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Their performance last year was not great as they finished 7th in the points table. They would be looking to better their performance in the upcoming season.
Here is how fans reacted:
Nitish Rana appointed as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 27, 2023
❤️🙌🙌🥹
— Shabarish ʸᵃˢʰ ¹⁹ (@architect_54) March 27, 2023
Deserved
— Mr Wrong (@wrong_huihui) March 27, 2023
Nitish Rana has been announced as the new captain of KKR.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 27, 2023
Tim Southee could have led KKR. Nitish Rana's appointment doesn't make sense. #IPL2023
— Gaurav Kadam (@gauraavkadam) March 27, 2023
Nitish Rana is the new captain for KKR. Big responsibility for him. #IPL2023
— Sameer Allana (@HitmanCricket) March 27, 2023
Shardul deprived of captaincy. pic.twitter.com/PlqUrPjOJz
— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) March 27, 2023
Nitish Rana is @KKRiders captain.
A fantastic elevation after being dropped from state team during red ball season.#IPL2023— Kushan Sarkar (@kushansarkar) March 27, 2023
O Captain! My Captain
All the best @NitishRana_27 💜💜 pic.twitter.com/q6b6x4xWQy— Priyanka 👑 (@iPriiyanka) March 27, 2023
#KolkataKnightRiders –
Captain Nitish Rana
Coach Chandrakant Pandit
IPL's domestic status in bold letters. Shud be an interesting case study how they go this year #IPL2023— Rasesh Mandani (@rkmrasesh) March 27, 2023
Nitish Rana appointed as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 27, 2023
Accha decision
— Bunty 🇮🇳🚩 (@Bunty2134) March 27, 2023
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