IPL 2022: 'After Gautam Gambhir, KKR Under Shreyas Iyer Is The Team To Beat', Says Irfan Pathan

Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the ongoing IPL 2022 has impressed former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan very much. In fact, he has said that KKR under Shreyas Iyer is as unbeatable as they were under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir.

Gambhir led the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to two Indian Premier League (IPL) titles in 2012 and 2014 and Gambhir led the Shahrukh Khan cow-owned franchise until the 2017 IPL.

Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer was bought by the KKR franchise for INR 12. 50 crores in the IPL 2022 mega auction and was handed the captaincy as well, as KKR didn’t retain Eoin Morgan, who led them to the final of the IPL 2021.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bounced back to winning ways in perfect style after Andre Russell muscled eight sixes in his unbeaten 31-ball 70 to help the two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions to a six-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium against Punjab Kings. This means they are at the top of the IPL 2022 points table with 4 points from 3 matches.

KKR Is Looking Very Very Solid As Far As Leadership Is Concerned: Irfan Pathan Lauds Shreyas Iyer’s Captaincy And Compares Him To Gautam Gambhir

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan reserved the highest praise for KKR captain Shreyas Iyer. He hailed him for his tactic of keeping the Punjab batters on their toes and for “steering the bowlers well” to keep the pressure on.

“Very very impressive because when he started captaincy in 2018 for Delhi, he was very young and very raw. Now he has got the confidence. What he has started to do is…like here when the game was starting to go away early on, Punjab started really well and they were aggressive from the start.

“Rajapaksa scored 9-ball 31. But Iyer called Umesh, then Mavi came – got hit for runs and then took a wicket, and then he called Varun Chakravarthy. He wanted to press the game even more harder against PBKS,” he said on Star Sports after KKR’s win.

“Then the ninth over was the key when he called Umesh and he got the wicket of Lima Livingstone and then the whole game changed. He got the nice understanding of maneuvering the bowlers as well. He is very smart,” he added.

The 2007 T20 World Cup winner Pathan then compared Iyer’s leadership with that of two-time IPL title-winning KKR captain Gautam Gambhir.

He said: “KKR is looking very very solid as far as leadership is concerned. After Gautam Gambhir, under Shreyas Iyer, this is the team to beat.”

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