Kolkata Knight Riders: The season of nail-bitters, thrillers, super overs and endless entertainment is here. The cricket extravaganza IPL 16 will kick start from 31st March and will end on 28th May. The curtain raiser will be played between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi International Stadium on Friday (31st March).
The re-introduction of the home and away format, which didn’t happen in the last few seasons due to covid, will be a massive boost for all the teams as home crowds certainly will help them go gaga and bring out the best of them. The preparations are in full flow for the league. All the players have joined their respective teams and have started putting in the hard yards ahead of the league.
IPL 2023: Shardul Thakur and Sunil Narine are front runners to captain KKR in the IPL 16
In what has been the latest development, two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders have appointed Nitish Rana as the skipper for the 16th edition of the league. The franchise took to its official social media handles and made the announcement.
There were many speculations about who will captain the team in absence of Iyer. Nitish Rana, Shardul Thakur and Sunil Narine were the three front runners for the role but the management appointed the batter as their skipper for this edition. Rana notably has been leading Delhi in the domestic circuit.
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This comes after their skipper Shreyas Iyer reportedly has been ruled out for at least the first half of the season due to a back injury. The right-hander complained about the pain during the recently concluded fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India in Ahmedabad and has been out of the action since then.
Shreyas Iyer’s absence will serve as a massive blow for the KKR as they will lose a quality batter in the middle. He was the leading run-getter for the team last year and was spot-on with his captaincy as well. It remains to be seen how KKR will fare in his absence and in the leadership of Nitish Rana.
Kolkata Knight Riders will open their campaign against Punjab Kings
Kolkata Knight Riders will open their campaign against Punjab Kings on 2nd April in Mohali. They would want to forget the horrendous outing in the last season and would want to set the stage on fire.
Here’s the KKR squad for the IPL 2023:
Nitish Rana (C) Shreyas Iyer (injured), Rahmanullah Gurbaj (Traded), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakraborty, Harshit Rana, Shardul Thakur (Traded), N Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora
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