'It's not just about Dada...': Nitish Rana's out-of-the-blue reply on Dhoni vs Kohli vs Ganguly post KKR captaincy

KKR captain Nitish Rana stunned onlookers with his unexpected reply to a question on Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Sourav Ganguly ahead of IPL 2023.

The Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday announced Nitish Rana as their new captain who will take over the reigns of the team until Shreyas Iyer is fit again to lead. Rana will be KKR's fourth captain in three seasons after Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan and Iyer himself and along with veteran coach Chandu Borde by his side is eager to end KKR's nine-year-wait for an IPL title. Rana has been with the season since 2018 and although he has been appointed captain just this year, the 29-year-old has been part of KKR's core leadership group.

Nitish Rana was appointed KKR's captaincy replacement for Shreyas Iyer for IPL 2023. (Twitter)

Rana has been consistent performer for KKR over the last five seasons, having racked up at least 300 runs each year. His impressive string of performances was rewarded with an India call-up where he represented his country in 2 T20Is and one ODI. This year, with Iyer unfit, the time is ripe for Rana to display his captaincy acumen and knock on the door of the selectors again. Rana has captained Delhi in 12 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophies but has no experience of leading in the IPL. Having said that, He has observed from closer quarters how the likes of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or even Sourav Ganguly led their respective IPL franchises, but while the general consensus believes Rana would try and pick the brains of the four superstars of Indian cricket, Rana instead has his own plans in place. At least that is what he indicated in his rather stunning reply to a reporter's question.

Reporter: Nitish, you've captained in domestic cricket but whom do you consider your idol when it comes to captaincy? You've seen Dhoni, Rohit, Kohli and before that Ganguly was there too. Who among these do you want to follow?

Rana: I don't want to follow anybody and want to lead in my own way. I know that if I start following someone, somewhere I will lose myself. I want to captain in my own style and take the same forward in my manner."

Rana was once again asked whether he received any advice or if he wants to emulate any captain – Ganguly in particular, in reply to which the left-handed batter held his ground. Rana has played under a plethora of captains as he went on to highlight but instead of taking a bit from all of them, he wants the world to know what he has to offer in his ways.

"It's not just about Dada. I have played under a lot of captains - Gautam Gambhir, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas in all the big tournaments. I have never played under Dada but the whole world knows what he did with Indian cricket and the heights he took it to. I feel that there are plenty of things to learn but everyone has their own style of captaincy. I would just want you to be patience and wait... and you'll get to learn and talk about my captaincy methods too, Rana insisted.