The opening match of IPL 2023 is scheduled to be played from 31st March. Prior to this match, the franchisees of all 10 teams announced their respective captains. However, following Shreyas Iyer’s exit from the IPL, KKR faced a captaincy conundrum. Nonetheless, KKR has appointed left-handed explosive batsman Nitish Rana as the team captain. Indian fans have been trolling Rana on social media and making different types of comments, poking fun at him for being made the captain.
The Kolkata Knight Riders team had been grappling with the captaincy issue for some time. There were various speculations that Shakib Al Hasan could hand over the reins of the team to Sunil Narine. However, the KKR team management surprised everyone by appointing Nitish Rana as the captain. With Rana being named captain, social media platforms were flooded with memes and comments, making fun of him.
Nitish Rana has been a good performer for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the past, although his performance in the previous edition was not up to the mark. Nevertheless, the team has decided to appoint him as their new captain after Shreyas Iyer suffered a back injury during a test match. This decision to make Rana the captain in place of Iyer has come as a shock, considering that there are experienced players like Pat Cummins, Shakib Al Hasan, and explosive all-rounder Andre Russell in the team.
Sunil Narine has also led his CPL team. In such a situation, handing over the captaincy to a young and relatively inexperienced player seems like a bold move. It appears that the team management is overconfident about Rana’s abilities, and only time will tell how the team performs under his leadership.
It’s worth mentioning that Nitish Rana has prior experience leading the Delhi team in domestic cricket. As per the latest information received from BCCI, Shreyas is out of action for 5-6 months,so the team management has needed to appoint a new captain for the entire edition. Rana has played 74 matches in IPL and has scored 1744 runs with a strike rate of around 135.
