IPL 2022: I'm a player's captain, says KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer, who has been named the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, believes that he is a player's captain.

Iyer recently helped India clean sweep Sri Lanka in the three-match T20I series. The Mumbai batsman is in great form, having scored 204 runs in three games. Iyer finished as the leading run-scorer in the series and was named the Player of the Series.

KKR bought Iyer at INR 12.25 crore at the recently-concluded mega auction and appointed him their skipper ahead of the 15th season.

"I would be coming in with a much different mindset now. I'm now more mature and experienced in terms of my decision-making and captaincy skills. Really waiting eagerly to work with every individual in the team, and build that synergy which could really help the team perform at a different level. I'm just going to love the responsibility, and I thrive under pressure," Iyer told KKR's official website.

Iyer, who made his IPL debut with Delhi Capitals (DC) in 2015, even led the side for a couple of seasons. When he was made captain in the middle of the 2018 season, Iyer (23 years and 142 days) became the fourth youngest player to lead in the IPL.

The young batter finished his DC career with 2,375 runs in 87 games at 31.66. He was not among the players who Delhi retained ahead of the IPL 2022.

"You know, for me to be part of the KKR family is an enormous feeling. I want to really appreciate the work which has been done by all the great players in the past and I would like to follow in the same footsteps, that they have created for KKR. Personally, I feel that I'm a player's captain and I want to create an atmosphere where all of us are thinking towards one goal, which is winning," he added.

Opening on his talks with former New Zealand Brendon McCullum, who is the current KKR head coach, Iyer said," Brendon McCullum as a coach I feel is very aggressive. Even when you saw him playing for his country (New Zealand), he was someone who was very aggressive and he is kind of a risk-taker. And I absolutely love that. Obviously, I've had few interactions with him after the auction. He's got that calm demeanor and I'm really looking forward to working with him, and to have some very successful seasons for KKR over the years."

KKR retained four players ahead of the auction: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy. The two-time champions bought back some of their old players, including Nitish Rana and Pat Cummins.

KKR's squad for IPL 2022: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana, Pat Cummins, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav, Aman Khan.