Kolkata Knight Riders mentor David Hussey has praised the appointment of Shreyas Iyer as their skipper for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, sharing the India batter seems to be a “true leader” who also has the clarity of what he needs to achieve with the team. However, KKR appointed him as their captain after letting go of both Dinesh Karthik and Eoin Morgan before the mega auction and bought him for Rs 12.25 crore at the mega auction.
However, Iyer did not lead Delhi Capitals in IPL 2021 despite having led them to their maiden final in 2020 as well. Moreover, Delhi didn’t retain him also. “Shreyas is a born leader, just the way he walks around, he commands respect. Knowing Pat (Cummins) really well, he would be a good deputy and would also lead from the front,” David Hussey told reporters on Wednesday.
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“But the way Shreyas has captained in the past for Delhi, he has a very good cricket brain and a nice vision of how to play the game and I think he will express himself really well. I think it’s a smart move from Brendon McCullum and KKR management. He is in rare form at the moment. I don’t know him, I’m getting to know him but he comes across as true leader and a person who knows his game really really well,” he added.
Meanwhile, KKR bought Ajinkya Rahane at the mega auction. The former India Test vice-captain is going through a rough patch in Test cricket and eventually dropped from the team after losing his post from the deputy. However, David Hussey believes Rahane will return in form and his experience of having led Rajasthan Royals earlier will help Iyer as well.
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“He’s been a class player for over a decade, he’s dominated for Rajasthan Royals and I believe he has at least 5-10 years of international cricket left in him. He might not be scoring the runs he wants recently but the way he is training he’s going to dominate in the IPL and also he’s a leader amongst the group as well. It is a concern to not have your best players available but saying that, international cricket is paramount. They miss the first five games but they’ll hit the ground running, match fit. Both are quality players. Hopefully, they can perform as per the game plan,” David Hussey concluded.
