After Gambhir, KKR under Shreyas Iyer is the team to beat: Irfan Pathan

After a win against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and a defeat against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made amends in the game by getting back to winning ways, defeating the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their latest assignment. Looking at Shreyas Iyer leading KKR in IPL 2022, Irfan Pathan had heaps of praises for the young skipper.

When it started looking a bit topsy-turvy for the Men in Purple, against PBKS, Andre Russell pulled off a magnificent 70*(31) to lead his team to a six-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday. Another major reason behind KKR’s win was Umesh Yadav’s four-wicket haul, which helped the team restrict PBKS to a low score.

“Very very impressive because when he started captaincy in 2018 for Delhi, he was very young and very raw. Now he has got the confidence. What he has started to do is…like here when the game was starting to go away early on, Punjab started really well and they were aggressive from the start. Rajapaksa scored 9-ball 31. But Iyer called Umesh, then Mavi came – got hit for runs and then took a wicket, and then he called Varun Chakaravarthy. He wanted to press the game even harder against PBKS,” said Pathan on Iyer’s captaincy as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Shreyas Iyer got a nice understanding of maneuvering the bowlers as well: Irfan Pathan

Awe-struck with his captaincy skills against PBKS, Pathan praised the youngster for his strategies and game plan. “Then the ninth over was the key when he called Umesh and he got the wicket of Liam Livingstone and then the whole game changed. He has got a nice understanding of maneuvering the bowlers as well. He is very smart,” he added.

KKR have now won two out of the three matches that they have played so far, and will now look to keep their winning momentum going. Shreyas Iyer will eye his first IPL title as a skipper, and the third one for KKR overall.

To conclude, Pathan made a very powerful statement that grabbed everyone’s attention. He opined that the other IPL teams will face difficulty in beating the team led by Iyer, as he said: “KKR is looking very very solid as far as leadership is concerned. After Gautam Gambhir, under Shreyas Iyer, this is the team to beat.”