IPL 2022 | Brendon McCullum heaps praise on Shreyas Iyer

Shreyasi Talukdar

The Kolkata Knight Riders head coach, Brendon McCullum, showered praise on the new captain Shreyas Iyer ahead of the IPL 2022 season opener. Kolkata Knight Riders will take on defending champions Chennai Super Kings in the first match of this year's Indian Premier League tonight.


McCullum believes that captain Iyer who led Delhi Capitals to their maiden IPL final in 2020, has the potential to be the best player for the franchise. "He's a great buy. He could be the franchise player for KKR for the best part of the decade. We've got to start somewhere, and that's tomorrow." 


Shreyas Iyer was purchased by Kolkata Knight Riders for a massive INR 12.25 crore and was subsequently made captain of the side. "He's already incredibly well-respected worldwide for what his game is about and what he's been able to achieve. His best years are certainly in front of him." The coach added, "I think he's got the potential to be an absolute superstar of the game, so I can't wait to work with him."


McCullum also finds similarities in the playing style between his and Iyer's. He believes that the attacking mindset of the latter will take the team all the way." We both share a common value of how we like to see the game played: you get a group of guys together, paint a vision, get the guys to play the game positively, and try and embrace those around you."


He continued, "We all will go on a journey together to try and achieve something special in terms of results and the investment, which hopefully we're going to talk about for many years to come. So I'm really excited to work with Shreyas." 


McCullum further informed that in the absence of Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav will lead the pace attack for Kolkata Knight Riders. "His statistics in the Power Play are really good. And that's what we look to try and use him. So hopefully, between him and the likes of Shivam Marvi and a couple of the other boys, we will be able to get a couple of early wickets and then allow our spinners to enter the game with us on top."