IPL 2024

‘Thoda dard hua, par chalta hai’ – Fans shocked as Nitish Rana named Kolkata’s captain for Indian T20 League 2023 in Shreyas Iyer’s absence

Mar 27, 2023 6:07 pm

Nitish Rana has been named as Kolkata captain for the upcoming edition of the Indian T20 League. The franchise conveyed the same through their Instagram handle. The left-handed batter is a great player of spin. He has played in the middle order for the franchise. In the Indian T20 League, he has served as a part-time bowler who can bowl leg spin.

This change has been brought about as Shreyas Iyer has been sidelined in the tournament due to a back injury. The franchise, as quoted by Times Now, was hopeful that Iyer would come back at some point. Rana has been with Kolkata since 2018. The franchise decided to go with Rana over big-ticket players like Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, who have been with the franchise before Rana.

He has captaincy experience leading his state side – the Kolkata franchise

Rana has played in the Indian T20 League for Mumbai as well. The batter had started his Indian T20 League journey with the Mumbai side. Rana had led the Delhi side in domestic cricket. He captained them in 12 T20s in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The left-hander has played 44 games for Kolkata and scored 1744 runs at a strike rate of 135.61.

“We feel fortunate that Nitish, with the captaincy experience having led his state side in white ball cricket and the India T20 League experience he has had with Kolkata since 2018, will do a great job,” Kolkata said in a statement. “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,” The franchise added.

Kolkata did not have the best seasons in 2022. The franchise were accused of chopping and changing their playing XI a lot. There was no stability for the members. They finished seventh on the points table. Kolkata had six wins and eight losses and ended up with 12 points.

Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter: