‘Want to lead in my own way’ - Nitish Rana on being asked to choose among present and former captains

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Monday announced Nitish Rana as the skipper of the team for the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL). The new appointment came after regular skipper Shreyas Iyer’s exclusion from the tournament. Shreyas is currently under rehabilitation after sustaining an injury and is likely to join the KKR squad in the second half of the tournament.

Rana has been with KKR since 2018. The 29-year-old batter has been a consistent performer for the team for the last five years. His impressive performance in the T20 tournament helped him to get an India call-up following which, he made his international debut in July 2021.

This will be Rana's first captaincy role in the cash-rich league. However, he has captained Delhi in the premier domestic T20 competition, the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy. Notably, he took over the captaincy of the Delhi team in 2018 replacing Gautam Gambhir.

After being named as the captain of KKR, Rana was asked to choose his idol among MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Saurav Ganguly. However, he gave an unexpected reply to the question as the 29-year-old batting all-rounder said that he did not want to follow anyone but wanted to lead the team in his own way.

"I don't want to follow anybody and want to lead in my own way. I know that if I start following someone, somewhere I will lose myself. I want to captain in my own style and take the same forward in my manner,” Rana said during a press conference.

I have played under a lot of captains: Nitish Rana

Nitish Rana was then asked whether he would like to get advice from Ganguly. He replied that he had played under many captains and that everyone had their own style of leading a team. He also said that he would follow his style and would want the world to know what he has to offer.

"It's not just about Dada. I have played under a lot of captains - Gautam Gambhir, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas in all the big tournaments. I have never played under Dada but the whole world knows what he did with Indian cricket and the heights he took it to. I feel that there are plenty of things to learn but everyone has their own style of captaincy. I would just want you to be patience and wait... and you'll get to learn and talk about my captaincy methods too," Rana added.

Kolkata Knight Riders had a terrible season last year, finishing seventh in the 10-team league. The two-time champions will kickstart their 2023 IPL season against Punjab Kings at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on April 1.

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