Kolkata Knight Riders suffered a massive blow ahead of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season when Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the fourth Test against Australia. The middle order had to sit out of the ODI series against Australia and as per reports he could miss IPL 2023 as well given his recurring back issues.
With the ODI World Cup later this year, Iyer is reportedly not willing to consider surgery which would essentially rule him out of the World Cup too, therefore, it could be a while before the 28-year-old is seen back in the international fold.
Talking about KKR, the franchise are considering handing over the captaincy hat to either Shardul Thakur or Sunil Narine for the upcoming IPL 2023 campaign.
As per a report in Times of India, KKR are set to announce their skipper for the upcoming season in the next couple of days in a grand function which will also be attended by the Kolkata-based franchise’s co-owner Shah Rukh Khan.
All-rounder Shardul Thakur, who was traded from Delhi Capitals for a staggering Rs 10.75 crore is the leading candidate to stand in for Iyer, whereas long-time spin-bowling all-rounder Narine is also in the fray.
Narine joined KKR back in 2012 and has been with the franchise ever since, although the veteran Caribbean cricketer recently captained KKR’s sister franchise Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20, wherein his side could win just one game and lost eight matches thus finishing bottom in the six-team tournament.
Thus, Thakur, who will be able to communicate better with the Indian players is reported to be leading the race for captaincy.
Whoever takes over the captaincy hat from Iyer will have to attend the IPL captains’ meeting in Ahmedabad on March 30 wherein skippers from all IPL franchises will be present. The two-time IPL champs are set to kick-start their new campaign against Punjab Kings at Mohali on April 1.
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