IPL 2023: KKR Appoint Nitish Rana As Captain To Replace Injured Shreyas Iyer

IPL 2023: Nitish Rana has the captaincy experience having led his state side in white ball cricket and the IPL experience he has had with KKR since 2018

Source: Twitter

Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday (March 27) announced that Nitish Rana would captain the side in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, who is recovering from a back injury. Iyer was forced to withdraw from the recent ODI series between India and Australia due to an issue in his lower back. Iyer can also miss out on the World Test Championship final at the Oval in June as well as the full season of the IPL 2023.

"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," wrote KKR informing on the news. (IPL 2023: Big Blow To RR As Key Bowled Ruled Out, Sandeep Sharma Named As Replacement)

Kaptaan -  Action begins, 1st April 2023 @NitishRana_27 #AmiKKR #KKR #TATAIPL2023 pic.twitter.com/q6ofcO2WGG — KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 27, 2023

Kolkata Knight Riders will play their first match against the Punjab Kings on April 1. All eyes will on Shreyas Iyer, Shakib al Hasan and Andre Russell to make the most with the bat in absence of Shreyas Iyer.

IPL 2023 KKR Squad

Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Weise, Kulwant Khejrolia, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan. (Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) IPL 2023 Possible Playing 11: Team Bank On Andre Russell Firepower In Absence Of Skipper Shreyas Iyer)