Flamboyant, left-handed batsman, Nitish Rana has been named the Captain of the 2 time IPL Champions, KKR for IPL 2023 season & will take responsibilities of regular skipper, Shreyas Iyer in his absence to lead the squad. Due to back injury reported by Iyer during 4th test between India and Australia in Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Iyer has to pull his name out of the IPL for indefinite time.
If Iyer recovers on time, the kolkata based franchise believes he can make a comeback at some stage in the tournament. Although, the exact deadline of Iyer getting fit is not clear as of now.
With just 4 days to go, KKR took to twitter announcing the new skipper.
Rana was roped in 3.2 Cr by KKR in 2018 and since then, Rana has stayed with the franchise in every situation. His experience of leading state team put him ahead in the the race for captaincy, making him the right choice for the responsibilities. It will be interesting to see what the Captain-Coach combination of Rana-Chandrakant brings to the table once IPL starts.
Rana IPL batting stats –
| Year | Match | Inngs. | Runs | HS | SR | Avg | 100s | 50s | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 14 | 14 | 361 | 57 | 143.82 | 27.77 | 0 | 2 | 29 | 22 |
| 2021 | 17 | 16 | 383 | 80 | 121.97 | 29.46 | 0 | 2 | 34 | 17 |
| 2020 | 14 | 14 | 352 | 87 | 138.58 | 25.14 | 0 | 3 | 43 | 12 |
| 2019 | 14 | 11 | 344 | 85* | 146.38 | 34.40 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 21 |
| 2018 | 15 | 15 | 304 | 59 | 131.03 | 23.38 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 14 |
| 2017 | 13 | 12 | 333 | 62* | 126.13 | 30.27 | 0 | 3 | 24 | 17 |
| 2016 | 4 | 3 | 104 | 70 | 138.66 | 34.66 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 8 |
| TOTAL | 91 | 85 | 2181 | 87 | 134.22 | 28.32 | 0 | 15 | 190 | 111 |
Rana IPL bowling stats –
| Year | Match | Overs | Runs | Wckts | Best | Ecnmy | Avg | SR | 4w | 5w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 14 | 2 | 23 | 0 | 0/9 | 11.50 | – | – | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 17 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 0/5 | 6.00 | – | – | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 14 | 2 | 23 | 0 | 0/7 | 11.50 | – | – | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 14 | 8 | 72 | 3 | 1/8 | 9.00 | 24.00 | 16.00 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 15 | 6.1 | 44 | 4 | 2/11 | 7.13 | 11.00 | 9.25 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0/3 | 3.00 | – | – | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 91 | 21.1 | 177 | 7 | 2/11 | 8.36 | 25.29 | 18.14 | 0 | 0 |
KKR will start their campaign against Punjab Kings on 1st April from 03:30pm IST onwards at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali.
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