The IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders won their third IPL title on 26 May after defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets in the final match of the tournament which was played at M.A. Chidambaram stadium, Chennai.
This is the third IPL title of KKR, earlier they won it in 2012 and 2014 under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir and this time, they have won it under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer.
Shreyas Iyer is one of the most talented cricketers of the present times and there was a time when he was getting groomed for the role of captaincy but his injury and then his poor form made him lose his place from the Indian side.
He was also removed from the list of the players who were given annual contracts because he ignored the repeated reminders from the BCCI for playing in the domestic cricket. The BCCI had instructed the players to play for their respective states whenever they are not playing international cricket but Shreyas Iyer chose to take rest and cited that he was having back issues. But things turned problematic for him after the medical experts of the National Cricket Academy declared him completely fit.
After this, the BCCI removed him from the list of the annual contract list which was certainly a big blow for him but he has once again proved his mettle by making his IPL team win the IPL 2024.
Chandrakant Pandit, the coach of KKR recently gave an interview in which he talked about Shreyas Iyer’s journey. He said that any player would have been disappointed with the manner in which he was snubbed by the BCCI but that should not affect his performance. He added that whenever they would talk about anything, they ensured that they didn’t talk about that because they were clear that the task that they had is more important than anything else.
Chandrakant Pandit further said that he remembers Shreyas telling him that he will prove it and the manner in which he has batted in the IPL, it shows that he is a mature and sensible batter. The KKR coach also praised Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy skills and called him a cool, calm and fantastic captain who was receptive of their suggestions and handled the team pretty well on-the-field as well as off-the-field. Pandit went to say that with KKR, Shreyas Iyer has shown the qualities which make him eligible for the captaincy of team India in the future.
Pandit also praised Gautam Gambhir, the mentor of KKR, and said that his presence was a big boost for the team as he has huge experience of cricket and the IPL and they took all the decisions in a collective manner.
Do you think that Shreyas Iyer can lead the Indian team in the future?
