Brendon McCullum heaps praise on star Kolkata batter, picks him as 'player of the decade'

Shreyas Iyer played an influential role in making Delhi a force to reckon with. Thus, their decision to not retain him managed to surprise a lot of pundits and experts. Nevertheless, Kolkata managed to acquire his services in the mega auction for a whopping amount of INR 12.5 crore.

They then went on to name him as their new skipper as well. Besides, the Mumbai batter has been in sensational form of late. He scored 204 runs during the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka and thus, was named the player of the series as well. Hence, he would be rearing to get on the field and represent his new franchise.

In the meanwhile, Kolkata's coach Brendon McCullum felt that Iyer can become the face of the franchise. He also stated that the 27-year-old has the potential to be Kolkata's "player of the decade". McCullum was looking forward to working with Iyer.

”He’s a great buy. He could be the franchise player for Kolkata for the best part of the decade. We’ve got to start somewhere and that’s tomorrow. He’s already incredibly well-respected around the world for what his game is about and what he’s been able to achieve. His best years are certainly in front of him. I think he’s got the potential to be an absolute superstar of the game so I can’t wait to work with him," said Brendon McCullum, as quoted by The Times Of India.

The 40-year-old then drew light on Iyer's attacking mindset and spoke about the similarities the two shared. Kolkata are set to face Chennai in the tournament opener on Saturday. As these two teams were the finalists of the 2021 edition, this game promises to be an absolute cracker of a contest. All eyes will be on Iyer as he will be leading Kolkata for the first time.

"We both share a common value of how we like to see the game played, which is you get a group of guys together, paint a vision and get the guys to play the game positively, and try and embrace those who are around you. We all will go on a journey together to try and achieve something not just special in terms of results but also in terms of the investment, which hopefully we're going to talk about for many years to come. So I'm really, really excited to work with Shreyas," McCullum added.