Shreyas Iyer has been on a good run with the bat of late and the right-handed batter will look to continue his form when he steps onto the field to lead the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Ahead of the tournament, Shreyas opened up on how he would like to lead the franchise and how he would be in good space by having senior players like Aaron Finch, Pat Cummins, and Ajinkya Rahane in the squad. KKR will open their IPL 2022 campaign against Chennai Super Kings on March 26.
Finch was roped in by KKR as a replacement for Alex Hales after the English opening batter pulled out of the tournament citing bubble fatigue.
"It is a great honour to have them (Aaron Finch, Pat Cummins, Ajinkya Rahane) alongside. They have achieved so many things while playing for their country. They have done wonders for themselves and it is an honour to play alongside them," said Shreyas while replying to an NDTV query during a virtual press conference.
"Definitely, if I get to a point where I feel it is my time to take some advice from the senior players and it is not just on the field, it is off the field as well in terms of gelling up and trying to get little advice in managing the team, how to speak to youngsters, all these aspects play a vital role. The senior players will play an immense part in that," the batter stated further.
KKR will play their opening match against CSK at the Wankhede Stadium. "There is a good bounce at the Wankhede wicket, it is really going to be important for us to practice in such conditions. The ball travels at a decent pace, all these aspects you have to see to it. Apart from that, all players must have played in those conditions. There is going to be a crowd over here and it will provide us energy," said Shreyas.
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana, Pat Cummins, Shreyas 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.