Shreyas Iyer is having an impressive outing in the ongoing IPL 2024 as the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders. Under his leadership, KKR have climbed up to the top of the points table following their recent victory, a dominant show against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Cricket Stadium.
KKR crushed LSG by a margin of 98 runs for their eighth win of the season.
Iyer’s potential as a leader was spotted long before as he was tipped to be the next big leader recalls former BCCI selector MSK Prasad.
“Shreyas Iyer, unlike Hardik Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja has been groomed (as a captain). He has come through a system,” Prasad said on RevSportz.
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Prasad held the role as the BCCI’s chief selector from 2016 to 2020 and he revealed that Iyer’s exploits as a captain were seen much earlier.
Reflecting his time with the India A side, the former India stumper pointed out the positive results under Iyer’s tenure.
“If you go back to the stats, in the last two years, when we were at the helm, Shreyas Iyer led the side (India A). I think out of the 10 series that India A played, we won 8. In the majority of those series, Shreyas led the side. He has been in and around as captain. He has been groomed for that particular slot,” Prasad said.
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Prasad even went on to say that the current KKR skipper was touted to take over from the likes of the former Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who is the current captain of the side across all formats.
“We felt that post Virat, post Rohit Sharma, you needed someone to lead the side that’s when we started thinking about Shreyas Iyer or Rishabh Pant. But even ahead of Pant, was Iyer as a captain,” he added.
Iyer’s role as the captain did not begin with KKR. In 2018, he was announced as the captain of the Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) taking over from Gautam Gambhir who is coincidentally the current mentor of KKR.
Iyer’s appointment as the skipper turned around the fortunes of the franchise that finished bottom in 2018, and went on to make the playoffs in the following three seasons till 2021 where they progressively improved their position in the league table from 3rd to 2nd and even 1st.
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Prasad suggested that the support from the team management coupled with his leadership capabilities has allowed Iyer to build a dominant side who are certainly a contender for the ongoing season of the IPL.
“He is slowly maturing into a very good leader. It’s very important at the start of your captaincy career to have good team management. That’s what he’s getting from KKR. He is young, and they are going to invest in him. In the next two or three years, we will see Shreyas evolve into a wonderful captain,” he concluded.
However, at the international level, Iyer seems to have fallen out of favour despite his brilliant performance in the ODI World Cup 2023. He has been excluded from the central contract list following his back injury concerns and his poor form with the bat in the recently concluded England Test series at home.
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