Shreyas Iyer's exclusion leaves Kolkata with a big question of captaincy

Kolkata have landed in big trouble ahead of the Indian T20 League 2023 as the regular skipper Shreyas Iyer is ruled out of the Indian T20 League 2023. The 28-year-complained a lower back injury due to which he also had to miss the recently-concluded three-match ODI series against Australia.

Following this, the Kolkata management is left with a big question of captaincy ahead of the 16^th edition of the cash-rich Indian T20 tournament. They are looking ahead for a few options ahead of the commencement of the tournament and their first match in the tournament against Punjab at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Saturday, the 1^st of April 2023.

Team management looking ahead for captaincy options to replace Shreyas Iyer

Meanwhile, the team management is thinking about the names of two senior players in the squad, Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine. The two are being considered as the two best fits in the quest to replace Iyer for the major responsibility in the tournament. Both the players have a good number of matches against their names when it comes to talking about their experience in the Indian T20 League.

“The Knight Riders management has started discussing options for the stand-in captain Iyer's absence. Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana are understood to be among the frontrunners but Knight Riders are deliberating hard on who could be a better choice as an overall package: man-manger, good communicator, leading team-mates and getting the best out of them under pressure in a match situation,” reads a report from ESPNcricinfo.

Here's a look at the Kolkata squad for the Indian T20 League:

Shreyas Iyer (c) – (ruled out), Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, Narayan Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Weise, Kulwant Khejrolia, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan.