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.
Rana has no experience leading a team in IPL but in domestic cricket, the left-handed batter has had leadership duties in the past. After being bestowed with the responsibility of leading a storied franchise, Rana spoke with the media for the first time on March 28 (Tuesday).
The new KKR captain was asked about whose captaincy mannerism he would like to follow between MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli. Rana came up with a firm reply.
"I don't want to follow anybody and want to lead in my own way. I know that if I start following someone, somewhere I will lose myself. I want to captain in my own style and take the same forward in my manner," Rana told reporters.
Rana was once again pressed with the same question but he stood his ground while mentioning some of the captains he has played under.
"It's not just about Dada. I have played under a lot of captains - Gautam Gambhir, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas in all the big tournaments. I have never played under Dada but the whole world knows what he did with Indian cricket and the heights he took it to. I feel that there are plenty of things to learn but everyone has their own style of captaincy. I would just want you to be patience and wait... and you'll get to learn and talk about my captaincy methods too," Rana insisted.
Kolkata will begin their IPL 2023 campaign against Punjab Kings on April 1 (Saturday)
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