IPL 2022: Ajinkya Rahane is a team man, he is not aiming for an India comeback, he is playing to make KKR win the title, says Abhishek Nayar

Kolkata Knight Riders' assistant coach Abhishek Nayar is impressed with the way Shreyas Iyer is leading the team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Nayar, who has been with the KKR franchise for a while, heaped praise on the 27-year-old Shreyas and compared his captaincy style to that of India and Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma. The Shreyas Iyer-led KKR team began their IPL 2022 campaign on a high, with a big win vs defending champions Chennai Super Kings in the tournament opener on March 26. "In terms of personality traits, Shreyas is very much similar to Rohit Sharma. He is just like Rohit in terms of his personality, in terms of being easy-going, in terms of empowering the cricketers. He empowers the players to play the style of game they want to play," Nayar said in response to a question by TimesofIndia.com in a media interaction.

Image credit: PTIShreyas, who had captained Delhi Capitals in 2020 and took them to their maiden final, was released after the 2021 season and KKR splurged a whopping Rs. 12.25 crore to acquire the services of the prolific Mumbaikar. KKR were hunting for a new captain after they released Eoin Morgan ahead of the players' auction and they looked to Shreyas to fulfill that role. Despite buying back Australia Test captain Pat Cummins in the players' auction, KKR preferred Shreyas ahead of Cummins to lead the team. Most IPL teams anyway prefer Indian captains. Also, most of the big name Aussie players are yet to join their IPL squads, because of international and personal commitments etc. Cricket Australia had earlier said that the Aussies would be joining the IPL only after the completion of their ongoing tour of Pakistan. Shreyas, who captained Delhi Capitals to their only IPL