IPL 2023: “Shreyas Iyer Is Extremely Important Not Just as a Captain but Also as a Batter”- Aakash Chopra

IPL 2023: Shreyas Iyer is suffering from a recurring back injury due to which he has been advised to rest and will miss at least the first few games of IPL 2023. Aakash Chopra reckons Shreyas Iyer is quite crucial as a batter for KKR’s success and it will cost them big if he gets ruled out of the entire tournament.

The Mumbai based-batter was roped into KKR’s squad ahead of IPL 2022 in the mega auction. The team management immediately announced him as their captain considering the kind of leadership skills he had shown for his previous franchise Delhi Capitals.

“What about Shreyas Iyer’s fitness? It is a question that is looming large because he is this team’s captain and their life. He has back spasms at the moment. If he has some back issues, the entire team’s backbone will become weak,” Aakash Chopra said on his show ‘AakashVani’ on JioCinema.

“The expectations are, fingers and toes crossed, that the guy becomes fit and available because does a team work without the captain? They have Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh and Mandeep Singh as pure batter options. That’s why Shreyas Iyer is extremely important not just as a captain but also as a batter, ” the former batter further added.

IPL 2023: KKR’s batting combination in the absence of Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer is the only Indian batter in the KKR squad who has the experience of playing enough international games. In his absence, Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer will be their key Indian batters.

Nitish Rana has also been named as their skipper as he has got experience leading Delhi in the domestic circuit. Mandeep Singh and Rinku Singh are the other Indian batters KKR will rely on in IPL 2023.

KKR have got quality International batters in Shakib Al Hasan and Litton Das but both of them will remain unavailable for a substantial part of IPL 2023. They might look to play Afghan batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz in their first playing XI.

All-rounders Sunil Narine and Andre Russell have made excellent contributions with the bat for KKR in the past editions. Their team management will expect both of these Caribbean players to fire in order to provide strength to their middle order.