Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made a perfect start to their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 campaign after defeating the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by six wickets on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium. Head coach Brendon McCullum was ecstatic after defeating the defending champions and heaped praise on KKR’s new skipper — Shreyas Iyer. McCullum reserved some high praise for Shreyas, saying the right-handed batter has all the qualities to dominate world cricket.
“It was fantastic. First game for Shreyas Iyer as the captain of KKR and I thought he did a really good job. He has been impressive around the camp so far and he has started to build those relationships with the players. He has a wonderful presence as a person. He has faith in his own game, really good start for him and the team against the current champions CSK. Pretty happy to get the points,” McCullum said on Star Sports after KKR’s six-wicket win over CSK.
McCullum also spoke of how excited he is to work alongside Shreyas Iyer and how it is rare to get an opportunity to work with someone so young as a coach.
“He certainly has got a cheeky side to him. He is one of those guys who have those last retorts. I am just delighted to get the opportunity to work with him. Very rarely in your coaching career that you get the chance to work with someone as exciting. I think his best years are front of him. He could be someone who becomes a world-class player and someone who dominates Indian and world cricket for a long period of time. I think between the two of us, we would like to see the game played in a similar fashion,” said McCullum.
In the game against CSK, KKR won the toss and opted to bowl first. Umesh Yadav returned with two wickets as KKR restricted CSK to 131/5. MS Dhoni played an unbeaten knock of 50 runs but in the end, it did not prove enough.
KKR chased down the target with relative ease with six wickets in hand and nine balls to spare. Ajinkya Rahane was the highest-scorer for KKR after playing a knock of 44 runs.
