Not Narine or Russell; KKR named an Indian Superstar to lead the side in Shreyas Iyer's absence in IPL 2023

With a action packed schedule coming ahead, a number of teams suffered from injuries. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant were not part of the coming edition and then KKR skipper was also ruled out as he wasn't able to completely recovered from his injury which left Kolkata in a disarray.

With not much time left in tournament to start, the Kolkata franchise has named star Indian batter Nitish Rana to be the stand-in captain for the team in the coming edition. This announcement was made on Monday which came as a surprise to many.

Rana has been part of the KKR setup since 2018 edition and has been a key member of the team. The southpaw doesn't have the experience of captaining a team at a highly competitive tournament like the IPL. But, he has led Delhi in the domestic T20 tournament.

That's why this announcement came as a surprise to many. Earlier, some reports confirmed that the franchise might give this job to either Sunil Narine or Shardul Thakur. However, Rana will be assisted by a well-known name in the Indian domestic circuit, Chandrakanth Pandit, who is expected to revive KKR's glory in the tournament.

KKR will start their campaign with a game against Punjab Kings at the Punjab Cricket Association on April 1. They finished sixth on the table in 2022 but prior to that played the final in 2021 under Eoin Morgan. But they lost to CSK in the final. KKR won the IPL in 2012 and 2014 under Gautam Gambhir.