IPL 2023: Nitish Rana to captain Kolkata Knight Riders in Shreyas Iyer's absence

Nitish Rana will lead Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 in Shreyas Iyer's absence, the franchise announced on Monday.

KKR's regular skipper Iyer is hopeful to return at "some stage" in the IPL 2023. He is currently recovering from a back injury, which recurred during the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia.

"Kolkata Knight Riders today announced that Nitish Rana would captain the side in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, who is recovering from a back injury," KKR said in an official statement.

"While we are hopeful that Shreyas will recover and participate at some stage in the IPL 2023 edition, we feel fortunate that Nitish, with the captaincy experience having led his state side in white ball cricket and the IPL experience he has had with KKR since 2018, will do a great job.

"We are also confident that under Head Coach Chandrakant Pandit and the support staff, he will get all the support needed off the field, and the highly experienced leaders in the squad will provide all support that Nitish may need on the field. We wish him the best in his new role and Shreyas a full and speedy recovery."

KKR signed former Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Rana for INR 3.4 crore from a base price of INR 20 lakh in 2018. Rana has scored 1,744 runs for KKR at 27.68, strike-rate of 135.61 in 70 innings, which includes 11 fifties. During his two-year stint at MI, Rana scored 437 runs at 31.21, including four half-centuries.

The middle-order batsman also led Delhi in 12 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches, winning eight of them. Rana is set to captain KKR amidst a complete revamp of the backroom staff that includes Chandrakant Pandit as the head coach, while Bharat Arun was appointed bowling coach.

Last season, Rana finished as KKR's second leading scorer with 361 runs in 14 games at an average of 27.77 and strike-rate of 143.82 as his side finished seventh in the 10-team table with 12 points from 14 matches.

The 29-year-old batter has also played one One-Day International (ODI) and a couple of T20 Internationals (T20Is) for India - all against Sri Lanka in 2021.

The other captaincy candidate at KKR was West Indian spinner Sunil Narine, who joined the franchise in 2012 and has been with them ever since. Narine recently led Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the inaugural edition of the International League T20, where they finished last among six teams with one win and eight losses.

IPL 2023 is scheduled to begin on Friday, with defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) facing off in the campaign opener at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

KKR will kickstart their campaign with an away fixture against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on April 1. Rana and Co's first home game is on April 6 when they host Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Eden Gardens.