Lagatar24 Desk
Bengaluru, Feb 16: Kolkata Knight Riders announced Shreyas Iyer as their new captain for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season on Wednesday.
KKR paid Rs 12.25 crore for Iyer during the IPL 2022 mega auction last week in Bengaluru. Shreyas Iyer will take over for Eoin Morgan, who was not retained by KKR and went unsold in the blockbuster auction.
Morgan had led KKR to the IPL 2021 final, but his recent form has worried the two-time winners, who will be coached by former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, say hello to the NEW SKIPPER of the #GalaxyOfKnights #ShreyasIyer @ShreyasIyer15 #IPL2022 #KKR #AmiKKR #Cricket,” KKR tweeted.
🚨 Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, say hello 👋 to the NEW SKIPPER of the #GalaxyOfKnights
অধিনায়ক #ShreyasIyer @ShreyasIyer15 #IPL2022 #KKR #AmiKKR #Cricket pic.twitter.com/veMfzRoPp2
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) February 16, 2022
Iyer, who led the Delhi Capitals to their first IPL final in 2020, was not re-signed by the franchise before the mega auction. As expected, the star India middle-order batter sparked a bidding battle before KKR snatched him up for a whopping Rs 12.25 crore, making him the most expensive purchase from the mega auction’s 10-man marquee list.
Iyer was signed by the Delhi Capitals for the 2018 and 2021 seasons. In 2015, he was paid Rs 2.6 crore for the franchise. However, following the Mumbai batter, the company’s stock has risen. Due to a shoulder injury, he was unable to lead Delhi in the first half of the IPL 2021 and was forced to abstain from captaincy as Rishabh Pant was backed by the Delhi administration.
In the IPL, Iyer has 2375 runs in 87 matches. Iyer scored at least 400 runs in each of the seasons from 2018 to 2022, with his best total of 519 in 2020.
KKR squad for IPL 2022:
Captain: Shreyas Iyer
Retained players: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy
Players bought at Auction: Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav, Aman Khan.
