Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) [India]: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper and India batter Shreyas Iyer was in his “natural habitat” ahead of his side’s Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Wednesday.
DC and two-time champions KKR will be locking horns in their IPL match at Visakhapatnam. Both teams are coming into the match after big wins. While DC defeated Chennai Super Kings (RCB) in its previous match by 20 runs, KKR handed Royal Challengers Bengaluru a loss by 21 runs.
KKR’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle posted a video of Iyer middling the ball perfectly, smashing his signature lofted hits, drives etc.
“POV: Tiger in his natural habitat,” tweeted KKR.
In his side’s two matches so far, Iyer has scored 39 runs. His last outing against RCB saw him score 39* in 24 balls, with two fours and two sixes. He could not open his run tally against Sunrisers Hyderabad. This IPL will be crucial for the right-hander to establish himself in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup in West Indies/USA from June 1 onwards.
In 51 T20Is, Iyer has made 1,104 runs at an average of 30.66 and a strike rate of over 136, with eight fifties. His best score is 74*.
After a successful stint with Delhi Capitals from 2015-21, which saw him take DC to IPL finals in 2020, Iyer joined KKR in 2022 as a captain. In his first season with the Purple and Gold team, Iyer has scored 401 runs at an average of 30.85, with a strike rate of over 134. He has scored three half-centuries, with the best score of 85.
He missed the 2023 season due to an injury and Nitish Rana stepped in as a skipper in his place.
In his IPL career, Iyer has scored 2,815 runs in 103 matches at an average of 31.63 and a strike rate of over 125, with 19 fifties. His best score is 96.
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Mitchell Starc, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Chetan Sakariya, Sherfane Rutherford, Sakib Hussain, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera, Allah Ghazanfar, Nitish Rana
Delhi Capitals Squad: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Mitchell Marsh, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Abishek Porel, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Rasikh Dar Salam, Sumit Kumar, Kumar Kushagra, Praveen Dubey, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Ricky Bhui, Kuldeep Yadav, Jhye Richardson, Shai Hope, Lalit Yadav, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal, Swastik Chikara.
