KKR's Nitish Rana names two people who influenced his captaincy ahead of IPL 2024

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Nitish Rana has named two players who shaped his captaincy mindset while leading Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2023.

Rana was named as the KKR captain in the last IPL season as Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the tournament with a back injury. The player recently spoke with JioCinema and opened up on his captaincy and the people who influenced him.

Rana says he had to convince the KKR hierarchy to give him the captaincy last season. The player mentions he had a leadership role during Brendon McCullum's stint at KKR, but only got his opportunity after convincing Shah Rukh Khan, Venky Mysore and others.

"There were some problems for sure in the camp because it's difficult to replace such a senior player. So, someone needed to step up. I went and spoke to coach Chandu Sir (Chandrakant Pandit), CEO Venky Sir (Venky Mysore). I also spoke to Shah Rukh Sir (Shah Rukh Khan) that I am willing to take up the role," Rana said to JioCinema.

"A lot of things were asked of me. I was told that the team didn't want me to experience unnecessary pressure. I told them just one thing, that I enjoy pressure a lot and I play cricket for only these things," he added.

Although Rana won't be captaining KKR in 2024 as Shreyas Iyer is back, he says the captain mindset was instilled to him by two players - Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma. Rana watched Gambhir from an early age and revealed Rohit Sharma's important advice during his stint at Mumbai Indians.

"I had seen Gautam (Gambhir) bhaiya as captain since I was a child. I had seen a lot of big players captain different teams. I had noticed every small thing of these players. Rohit (Sharma) bhaiya also gave me a suggestion when we played against Mumbai Indians. He said the more you keep things simple, the better it is. The more you complicate things, there is no limit to that," he concluded.

The southpaw has been named Shreyas Iyer's deputy for the IPL 2024 season and will be hoping for a better outing in the upcoming season. KKR haven't made to the IPL playoffs in the last two seasons and will be aiming to resurrrect their squad in the upcoming auction on December 19.