IPL 2022 | Shreyas Iyer is the new Kolkata Knight Riders captain

Two time Indian Premier League winner Kolkata Knight Riders confirmed their captain on Wednesday, 16 February. As anticipated, KKR announced that Shreyas Iyer will be taking over the reins of the franchise after England’s Eoin Morgan was let go after the conclusion of the season.

Iyer - former Delhi Capitals’ captain is widely regarded as a good captaincy material and was the prime reason behind Delhi’s turnaround. The Mumbai lad was bought for big bucks in the 2022 mega auction fetching Rs 12.25 crore. With multiple teams looking for a captaincy candidate it was expected that Iyer would not come cheap and it turned out to be true when Kolkata had to push for such a big amount on the 27-year-old middle order batter.

Iyer would be bringing his elite spin hitting capability to the KKR line-up - a place where the team has tremendously struggled in the middle orders and it is expected that he would do really well in the smaller dimensions in Mumbai.

Alongside Iyer, KKR paid big money to bring back home left-hander Nitish Rana (8 cr) Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins (7.25 cr) and Indian quick Shivam Mavi (7 cr). At a time it was looking like Kolkata were fairly out of budget to complete the squad, but a masterclass late in the accelerated auction saw them pick up Alex Hales, Sam Billings for a very nominal price. They also acquired the services of Mohammad Nabi, and Sri Lankan pace bowling all rounder Chamika Karunaratne.