Nitish Rana to lead Kolkata in Iyer’s absence

Kolkata have named Nitish Rana as stand-in skipper for Indian T20 League 2023. The southpaw will fill in for Shreyas Iyer, who will miss the start of the season due to a back injury. 

The flamboyant batter has been with the franchise since 2018 and has scored in excess of 300 runs in each of the five seasons. Having led Delhi in the domestic circuit, the 29 year old has prior captaincy experience. He has also represented India in two T20Is and an ODI with all three of his international experiences coming on the tour of Sri Lanka in July 2021. 

The two time Ind T20 League champions were left to assign a new captain after their regular skipper, Iyer, suffered a relapse of a back injury during the fourth Border-Gavaskar Test against Australia in Ahmedabad. Other captaincy alternatives included veterans Andre Russel and Sunil Narine as well as current New Zealand Test skipper Tim Southee.

The management however remains hopeful that Iyer, whose services they bagged for INR 12.25 crore last year, will return at some point in the season. “While we are hopeful that Shreyas will recover and participate at some stage in the Ind T20 League 2023 edition, we feel fortunate that Nitish, with the captaincy experience having led his state side in white ball cricket and the Ind T20 League experience he has had with Kolkata since 2018, will do a great job," a franchise release stated.

"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 will begin their 2023 campaign against Punjab on April 1.