IPL 2022: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) New Captain in IPL 2022

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) New Captain in IPL 2022: With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 Mega Auction date coming closer, the hype around the lucrative league just grows bigger and bigger. The fifteenth edition of the IPL is going to be huge and we can clearly see the developments around it.

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have always been a side built around the stars of the cricketing world. The likes of Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum, Shoaib Akhtar and Ricky Pointing have only increased the popularity of the team.

Despite being a star-studded side, KKR hasn?t found it easy to storm into the top four of the IPL on many occasions. The franchise saw its star aligning themselves in the perfect path as the captaincy of the team was handed over to southpaw Gautam Gambhir back in 2011.

Gambhir took KKR to two IPL titles in the year 2012 and 2014, however, since then it has been a draught run for the two tiles IPL winners. The franchise though did a lot of back-end work to turn the fortunes, but nothing seemed to work out.

The recent IPL 2021 wasn?t fruitful either until KKR corrected its mistakes in the second phase of the league. The first seven matches were hard to dissolve for the Knight Riders, however, the forced covid break turned out to be a blessing in disguise for them. KKR rose from the penultimate position and went on to play the finals of the league against CSK.

The franchise had a perfect captain in Eoin Morgan in the IPL 2021, but somehow Morgan?s sharp blade didn?t respond well in the entire IPL. Eoin Morgan could only manage to score 133 in 17 matches at a poor average of 11.08.

Knight Riders management won?t be happy with the stat possessed by the English player and will be keen on doing some shuffling in the captaincy of the team. Here in this article, we will take a look at top players who can be Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) new captain in the IPL 2022.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) New Captain in IPL 2022:

Shreyas Iyer:

Delhi Capitals (DC), in the recent player retentions, opted against the retention of Shreyas Iyer and marked him a free agent for the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. Rishabh Pant has been retained as the skipper of Capitals for the next IPL season.

Shreyas Iyer, being a free agent, is being chased down by multiple IPL franchises, one of those is Kolkata Knight Riders. The King Khan co-owned IPL franchise is impressed with what Iyer bring with him and wants him to be the KKR skipper in IPL 2022.

A report published in the TOI indicated that Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is interested in the services of Shreyas Iyer as the potential captain of the side. 

Iyer?s successful captaincy stint at Delhi Capitals (DC) has piqued KKR?s interest in the cricketer. Under his leadership, DC finished as the runner-up of IPL 2020 and has been consistently doing well to at least reach playoffs.

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Ben Stokes:

Rajasthan Royals (RR) has released their premier all-rounder Ben Stokes during the recent player retentions. This wasn?t anticipated as Stokes is one of the most favourable T20 batsmen at present. 

Now Stokes being a free agent can be acquired by any IPL franchise during the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) should highly invest in the all-rounder services in the upcoming mega auction.

Ben Stokes has proved himself as a mature player owing to which he has posed himself as the strong captaincy material candidate for England. Several cricket pundits have talked in favour of Ben Stokes and hailed his on-field brilliance for England.

He captained a depleted England side in the ODI series against Pakistan, last year. In the three matches ODI series, Ben Stokes led England cleanly swept Pakistan convincingly.

There has been a lot to talk about the English all-rounder. He is a phenomenal cricketer with both bat and ball in hand. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) should consider him as a potential candidate to lead the side if they fail to get Shreyas Iyer on the team.

Aaron Finch:

The other probable candidate to target in the IPL 2022 Mega Auction will be Australian limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch.?

Though Finch went unsold during the IPL 2021 mini auctions, his captaincy brilliance is no secret the to entire world. Finch is a highly rated T20 batsman in the world. He is the sixth-ranked T20I batsman in the world with 709 rating points. 

Moreover, Finch-led Australia recently won the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 which speaks volumes of his skilful captaincy.?

Aaron Finch is someone who can play a strikers role in the powerplay overs and can score the bulk of runs for the team in initial overs, however, he isn?t someone who can be relied upon with the willow in hand.

In the Indian Premier League (IPL) season thirteen, Finch scored 268 runs in 12 innings for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The right-handed batsman averaged 22.33.

With the recent T20 World Cup title win, Aaron Finch automatically becomes a strong captaincy candidate and KKR should definitely think about having him on board for the fifteenth edition of the Indian Premier League.

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