KKR team management has faith in Nitish Rana

Shardul has been part of Team India, but for Nitish Rana to get the nod meant they had planned.

KKR team management has faith in Nitish Rana

Nitish Rana

The guessing game over who will lead Kolkata Knight Riders has ended. When the name of Nitish Rana, a Delhi left-hander was announced on Monday, it did create a buzz. Since the time Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the fourth Test in Ahmedabad in the BGT Series, problems began. First, for Shreyas himself, speculation on his back injury grew. From surgery to no surgery, there have been various versions doing the rounds. The big deal was, who would lead KKR in the Indian Premier League, beginning on March 31.

Given the past record of KKR in the IPL, they did soar to great highs under Gautam Gambhir’s leadership. They won the title twice, in 2012 and 2014, an altogether different time. Cricket and Calcutta, now Kolkata, are great partners. When the team became a part of the IPL circus in 2008, the Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly was the captain.

Picking players and captains in the IPL has nothing really to do with which city the player comes from. Sample this, Shreyas Iyer plays for Mumbai and was to lead Delhi Capitals in the IPL a few seasons ago He got injured and then Rishabh Pant took over. Pant met with an accident in December 2022 and is now out. David Warner will now lead Delhi Capitals, with Ricky Ponting in charge. Of course, Sourav Ganguly is also part of the Delhi team now, with his BCCI stint as President over.

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Nitish Rana has experience plus the advantage of being with KKR for a good period of time

KKR team management has faith in Nitish Rana
Nitish Rana

Back to Nitish Rana, he is an essential Delhi lad, who led the state team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has also played in very few T20 internationals in 2021 though he is no longer in running for the national squad. There was intense speculation about who would lead KKR, a team with great brand value. After all, a team that has Shah Rukh Khan associated with it, is high profile. Their performance in the 2022 IPL was quite poor, finishing seventh.

Maybe, the plans this summer are to focus on rebuilding. KKR would have been happy had Shreyas been in charge. For a team that peaked under the leadership of Gambhir over a decade ago, the rebuilding process has begun. KKR retained Nitish Rana, 29, at Rs 8 crores. Yet, the speculation in the last few days was not over him as captain. The names of Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur were doing the rounds.

Shardul has been part of Team India, but for Nitish Rana to get the nod meant they had planned. The coaching of KKR is now in the hands of Chandrakant Pandit, a shrewd guy who has shown his pedigree in Ranji Trophy, red ball cricket. The IPL will be a different kettle of fish, where he also has the services of Bharat Arun. The KKR management says Rana paying 74 matches for KKR was a factor in picking him. “We feel fortunate that Nitish, with the captaincy experience, having led his state side (Delhi) and the IPL experience he has with KKR since 2018 will do a great job,” said the KKR team management in a release.

To be sure, at 29, Nitish Rana has experience plus the advantage of being with KKR for a good period of time. Each team has its own work ethic and what it wants to do. How he teams up with Chandrakant Pandit and builds the team will be interesting to watch.

As a southpaw, Nitish Rana has strokes and aggression. He is also a part-time spinner if needed. Maybe, having experience of leading Delhi in T20 went in his favor. You can be sure, the KKR management did not go by just his stats while deciding on the leadership. After all, how many had predicted Gujarat Titans in their maiden appearance with Hardik Pandya as captain in the IPL in 2022 would win the trophy? KKR need to reproduce the “Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re” spirit again!

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