Virat Kohli groomed Shreyas Iyer as future India captain, reveals former India selector MSK Prasad

KKR won IPL 2024 under Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy.

Middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their Indian Premier League (IPL) third trophy last Sunday in Chennai.

Kolkata hammered Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2024 grand finale at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on May 26. KKR won the IPL trophy after 10 years. They previously won the championship in the 2012 and 2014 editions.

Kolkata had a stunning run in IPL 2024. Under Iyer’s leadership, Kolkata dominated the league stage and finished at top of the points table with 20 points in 14 games.

After reaching the playoffs, Kolkata thumped Pat Cummins’ SRH in Qualifier 1 and then again in the final to clinch their third IPL title.

The huge testament to Shreyas’ impressive captaincy was that his side lost only three games in the whole IPL 2024 season. Many cricket pundits have been praising the Mumbai cricketer for his brilliant leadership qualities, and some experts have even hailed him as a future Indian skipper.

We invested in Shreyas Iyer: MSK Prasad

Current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is in the twilight of his career, and it feels that the selectors will soon be on the hunt for a new skipper, at least in the white-ball cricket. Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah are the top contenders to lead the side after Rohit.

Former BCCI chief selector MSK Prasad has opened up about the time when his selection committee invested in Shreyas to groom him as the future skipper of the Indian cricket team. During Prasad’s tenure, it was Virat Kohli who was leading India in all three formats.

“We had a succession plan ready for captaincy. We were looking for a player who could lead India post the MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma eras. Shreyas Iyer was groomed, and he led India A in close to ten series, winning eight. We invested in him, unlike Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja,” MSK Prasad told Boria Majumdar on RevSportz.

MSK Prasad added that Iyer was fortunate to be picked up by KKR at the IPL 2022 mega-auction after having a successful stint with the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the IPL. In the 2020 edition, Iyer led DC to the final but lost to Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians (MI).

“He was unfortunately injured (in IPL 2021), and Rishabh Pant did well during that time. Prior to that, Iyer was Delhi Capitals’ captain, and working under the coaching of Ricky Ponting helped him. He did a good thing by joining Kolkata Knight Riders and was helped by the franchise. He looked at ease there. With young players like Iyer, you need a better support system to help them in leadership duties. I am sure Shreyas Iyer will become a good captain in two or three years,” Prasad further told Boria Majumdar.

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