Indian batsman Shreyas Iyer will lead the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise in the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). KKR will start their IPL campaign against defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 26.
KKR mentor David Hussey feels that Iyer “is a born leader” and “he has a very good cricket brain.”
Hussey speaks
“Shreyas is a born leader, just the way he walks around, he commands respect. Knowing Pat (Cummins) really well, he would be a good deputy and would also lead from the front,” Hussey said during a virtual press conference on March 23 (Wednesday).
“But the way Shreyas has captained in the past for Delhi, he has a very good cricket brain and a nice vision of how to play the game and I think he will express himself really well. I think it’s a smart move from Brendon (McCullum) and KKR management,” the former Australia batsman further added.
While talking about coaching skipper Iyer, the KKR mentor said that “the best coaching is to just leave the good players alone.”
“The best coaching is to just leave the good players alone, let them go where they work. He is in rare form at the moment. I don’t know him, I’m getting to know him but he comes across as a true leader and a person who knows his game really really well,” he explained.
Talking about Rahane
On the other hand, KKR roped in veteran Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane at the mega auction for the 15th edition of IPL for an amount of Rs 1 Crore and Hussey feels that Rahane still “has at least 5-10 years of international cricket left in him.”
“He’s been a class player for over a decade, he’s dominated for Rajasthan Royals and I believe he has at least 5-10 years of international cricket left in him.
“He might not be scoring the runs he wants recently but the way he is training he’s going to dominate in the IPL and also he’s a leader amongst the group as well,” Hussey explained.
KKR full squad for IPL 2022
Shreyas Iyer (captain), Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Chamika Karunaratne, Baba Indrajith, Ashok Sharma, Pratham Singh, Abhijeet Tomar, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammed Nabi, Aman Khan, Umesh Yadav
