Kolkata Knight Riders to announce their captain in a Live show

Franchises and fans have a lot of questions to answer heading into the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They’ve picked the squads in the player auction and now it is time to announce the leader. While the Rajasthan Royals held a live show on the official broadcast channel for the IPL, Star Sports on February 24 to announce their captain and now the Kolkata Knight Riders will also name their skipper live.

Bengal’s original hero and their beloved son, Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly will be present on the show along with KKR assistant coach, Simon Katich who will discuss the qualities they seek in their captain given the talented pool of players that the franchise managed to buy in the auction.

The show will be covered on Sunday, February 25 on Star Sports Hindi 1, Star Sports Hindi HD 1 and Star Sports First at 10:00 PM IST. KKR will be hosting a fan poll on their official website asking the fans to nominate their choice for the captain before it is eventually declared on March 4.

Uthappa in contention for the role

Talking exclusively at the Knight Club, the former KKR captain said: “It is important for KKR to entrust their new captain with the kind of faith and stability they showed in Gautam Gambhir. When I look at the current KKR squad, I feel Robin Uthappa is the best player to lead the team,” Ganguly said.

“Though the team has experienced campaigners in Dinesh Karthik and Chris Lynn but Uthappa has been with the team for over 4 years now and he’s had considerable experience in dealing with the dynamics of the side, not to mention that he’s a fan favourite as well. An aggressive batsman himself, he will be the right successor to the legacy that KKR has come to build over the last decade,” he added.

Katich said: “While on-field characteristics play an important role, we are also looking at someone who can be a big part of the camp off the field. It is important how the captain goes around and creates a friendly atmosphere in the camp by not always talking cricket and also getting to know the players and their characteristics.”