Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will miss the services of their regular skipper Shreyas Iyer at least in the first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. Shreyas is expected to undergo surgery for his lower-back problem which benched him in the middle of the fourth and final Test against Australia earlier this month.


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In Iyer’s absence, KKR are yet to announce their new skipper for the IPL 2023, even days ahead of their opening match against Punjab Kings on April 1. West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell, Bangladesh T20I skipper Shakib al Hasan and Delhi Ranji skipper Nitish Rana are front-runners to replace Iyer as skipper.


The Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise have won the IPL twice in the past but failed to reach the Playoffs stage in 2022 after losing the IPL 2021 final to MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings. KKR will bank on Russell’s firepower in the middle-order in the absence of Iyer with in-form Tamil Nadu opener Narayan Jagadeesan expected to come into the middle as well as the wicketkeeper.


Apart from these two Rinku Singh and Rana will be crucial for KKR’s batting. The Knight Riders will once again have all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer at the top of the order with either Litton Das of Bangladesh or Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz opening the batting with him. They also have the option of sending spinner Sunil Narine to open the batting as well.


The bowling attack will be manned by Narine along with Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee and spinner Varun Chakravarthy with all-rounders Shardul Thakur, Russell and Venkatesh Iyer also chipping in.



Kolkata Knight Riders strongest Predicted Playing XI


Venkatesh Iyer, Litton Das/Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell (capt), Rinku Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk), Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Varun Chakravarthy


Kolkata Knight Riders squad for IPL 2023


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