"McCullum always encourages me to think like a captain": KKR's Nitish Rana
Dec 14, 2023
Perth [Australia], December 14 : India batter Nitish Rana said he was encouraged by former Kolkata Knight Riders coach Brendon McCullum to think like a captain when he eventually led the KKR squad in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 in the absence of Shreyas Iyer.
Iyer had missed out the previous season due to injury which meant that Rana had to captain the KKR team. Now on Thursday, KKR took to X to announce Shreyas as the skipper of the franchise. Venky Mysore, CEO of KKR, announced that Iyer will continue to captain KKR while southpaw Nitish Rana will serve as his deputy.
"I had become a senior member of the side in the last 3-4 years. I had got a leadership role in this period. This was started by Baz (former KKR coach Brendon McCullum). He would always encourage me to think like a captain," Rana told JioCinema.
KKR finished seventh in the league table with 12 points under Nitish Rana's captaincy but were unable to qualify for the playoffs.
Rana also shared some of the views on captaincy that his former coach had provided with him.
"He said it's not important that you'd be controlling the game, it's not important that I will listen to what you say. But you have to keep your brain active about what captaincy is all about. So that helped me a lot," Rana revealed.
Nitish also said that he had discussed his desire to serve as captain in Iyer's absence with the team's management and owners.
"Unfortunately, Shreyas (Iyer) got injured. There were some problems for sure in the camp because it's difficult to replace such a senior player. So, someone needed to step up. I went and spoke to coach Chandu Sir (Chandrakant Pandit), CEO Venky Sir (Venky Mysore). I also spoke to Shah Rukh Sir (Shah Rukh Khan) that I am willing to take up the role. A lot of things were asked of me. I was told that the team didn't want me to experience unnecessary pressure. I told them just one thing, that I enjoy pressure a lot and I play cricket for only these things. So these are the things that went in my favour and I got the captaincy. And I am really proud that I got a chance to lead such a franchise," he added.
KKR will try to bolster their squad as they look to upgrade their side with better players to win the title. KKR last won the crow under Gautam Gambhir's leadership in 2014.
