Nitish Rana, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) stand-in captain in IPL 2023, said that playing at the Arun Jaitley Stadium means playing at home for him. Notably, Rana plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and has played cricket for much of his growing years at this same ground.
He will be leading the KKR team when they face off against Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 20, 2023, in the second match of the doubleheader.
In a video shared by KKR on their social media, captain Rana revealed that he played most of his cricket in Delhi and credited the DDCA for everything he has achieved in cricket so far.
He said: “I’m getting homely vibes here. Although during the IPL, that feeling is stronger at Eden Gardens. But yeah I’ve grown up here and played most of my cricket here as well. All that I have learned and attained from cricket happened at this ground and is also because of DDCA (Delhi & District Cricket Association).”
Rana also said that he’d have more pressure to perform amongst his home crowd. At the same time, he doesn’t want to get distracted.
“The pressure will be slightly higher than the other matches as there’ll be my home crowd here and most people here are either a known face or an acquaintance and me being a local to this cricket association as well. But at the same time I strongly feel that I shouldn’t get too excited about it and keep it to myself and hold my composure and focus,” he said.
“I don’t want to get distracted. I don’t want to bother myself with external factors and won’t even try to control them. I want to stay focused on myself and let’s see if we can successfully bag two points,” he added.
In the same video, Rinku Singh, who is having a sensational IPL 2023, spoke about the team’s environment and said that the players at KKR gel along with the support staff.
“The vibe is really good within the team. It is cricket at the end of the day where but if the attitude and the vibe of the team are good which is the case here between the players and the support staff and it shows in the way they function and bond together,” he said.
(Indian Express inputs)
