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Two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on March 27 (Monday) announced Nitish Rana as the franchise's skipper for the upcoming edition of the cash-rich league. Rana will take the captaincy honours from Shreyas Iyer, who has been suffering from a back injury. Iyer has not been completely ruled out of the 16th edition of the IPL but the likelihood of the right-handed batter recovering in time for the tournament is slim.
"Kolkata Knight Riders today announced that Nitish Rana would captain the side in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, who is recovering from a back injury," KKR said in a statement.
"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 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," the franchise added.
It is important to note that Iyer made a comeback to the Indian side after missing the New Zealand white-ball series and the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar series. The Mumbaikar sustained a back injury and headed to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to start the recovery process. After completing the rehabilitation process, Iyer returned for the second Test match against Australia in Delhi. Iyer failed to make an impact and tallied just 42 runs in four innings against the Baggy Greens.
Having said that, Iyer was a tremendous form with the bat in 2022. He was one of the best Indian batters in ODIs and Tests, scoring plenty of runs with attractive shots. So far, the Mumbaikar has represented Inda in eight Tests, 42 ODIs and 49 T20Is. In all three formats combined, the right-handed batter has scored more than 3,300 runs.
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