I convinced KKR management to give me captaincy in IPL 2023: Nitish Rana

Nitish Rana, India player and captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2023 spoke exclusively to JioCinema recently. He discussed the situation that led him to become the captain, learnings from other skippers, and his thoughts on Rinku Singh’s match-winning five-sixes against Gujarat Titans.

Excerpts: 

On his thoughts as KKR captain in 2023 

I had become a senior member of the side in the last 3-4 years. I had got a leadership role in this period. This was started by Baz (former KKR coach Brendon McCullum). He would always encourage me to think like a captain. He said it’s not important that you’d be controlling the game, it’s not important that I will listen to what you say. But you have to keep your brain active about what captaincy is all about. So that helped me a lot.  

Unfortunately, Shreyas (Iyer) got injured. There were some problems for sure in the camp because it’s difficult to replace such a senior player. So, someone needed to step up. I went and spoke to coach Chandu Sir (Chandrakant Pandit), and CEO Venky Sir (Venky Mysore). I also spoke to Shah Rukh Sir (Shah Rukh Khan) that I am willing to take up the role. A lot of things were asked of me. I was told that the team didn’t want me to experience unnecessary pressure. I told them just one thing, that I enjoy pressure a lot and I play cricket for only these things. So these are the things that went in my favour and I got the captaincy. And I am really proud that I got a chance to lead such a franchise.  

On his mindset after getting the captaincy 

I had seen Gautam (Gambhir) bhaiya as captain since I was a child. I had seen a lot of big players captain different teams. I had noticed every small thing of these players. I always kept my eyes and ears open. I want to learn a lot more about the game. I have become a lot more patient now. This wasn’t the case earlier. Rohit (Sharma) bhaiya also gave me a suggestion when we played against Mumbai Indians. He said the more you keep things simple, the better it is. The more you complicate things, there is no limit to that. 

On Rinku Sigh’s five-sixes against Gujarat Titans 

It was my second game as captain and I got really emotional after seeing this feat. In the dressing room, I told him I really don’t know how you did this. But, just remember that from here you are capable of doing anything.