IPL 2024: How Shreyas Iyer fought adversity on multiple fronts to guide KKR to third title

Six months ago, Shreyas Iyer was at the receiving end of things on a fateful night of 19 November, 2023 in Ahmedabad. He was one of Australia captain Pat Cummins’ two victims at the ODI World Cup final that India heartbreakingly lost. Fast forward, Iyer is now an IPL-winning captain with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and the team he won against, in the final, was none other than Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

Between then and now, he has gone through hardships but has held himself together to come out of those difficult situations. Not to mention two of his biggest setbacks in the last six months — resurfacing of a back injury, and maybe more importantly, losing out on a BCCI central contract .

IPL 2024 | How Shreyas Iyer-led KKR ended a decade-long wait

The 29 year-old did not have the best of IPLs with the bat — 351 runs from 14 matches including two fifties is pretty ordinary, but it’s his leadership qualities that need to be talked about. And above everything, Iyer’s rapport with KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir, with the duo guiding the team past the finish line.

𝗖.𝗛.𝗔.𝗠.𝗣.𝗜.𝗢.𝗡.𝗦! 🏆

BCCI President Roger Binny and BCCI Honorary Secretary @JayShah present the #TATAIPL Trophy to Kolkata Knight Riders Captain Shreyas Iyer 👏👏 #Final | #TheFinalCall | @KKRiders | @ShreyasIyer15 pic.twitter.com/MhVfZ6dPxk

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 26, 2024

How Shreyas Iyer fought adversity on multiple fronts

Shreyas Iyer had been there done that, well, maybe partly. In 2020, he led Delhi Capitals (DC) to the final of the IPL, where they went down to Mumbai Indians (MI). However, 2021 would be a year where he would begin battling with injuries. A shoulder injury would prevent him from playing the first half of the IPL season that year.

Rishabh Pant, who was captain of DC in the first half, continued as skipper even when Iyer returned. Not long after, the West Zone cricketer then left DC, before being acquired by KKR for a whopping Rs 12.25 crore.

IPL 2022 was yet another ordinary season for the former India U-19 cricketer, as KKR failed to make the playoffs. In 2023, Iyer suffered arguably the biggest setback in his career. A back injury during the India-Australia Test series forced him out of IPL 2023 completely. That was also a major worry going into the ODI World Cup later that year, but Iyer, as a No 4 batter in the showpiece event, defied odds to notch 530 runs from 11 matches.

Part of the reason for Shreyas Iyer’s success at KKR has got to be due to Gautam Gambhir’s role as mentor and strong influence in the team. Gambhir, after all, knows the franchise inside out, and knows a thing or two about winning IPL titles, having led them to two of those in 2012 and 2014.

“Talking about Gautam bhai, he has got immense knowledge about how the game is played, has won two titles previously with KKR, and his strategies have been spot on in terms of what we have to execute against our opponents.

“He adds a lot of cream to the team and hopefully we continue the same momentum in the final,” Shreyas had said ahead of the IPL final against SRH.

What a Champion's morning looks like 😴🏆 pic.twitter.com/x4ADGzic8E

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 27, 2024

Iyer and Gambhir together did wonders for the Knight Riders. The duo, along with head coach Chandrakant Pandit, who is a master tactician himself, kept faith in those KKR players who had the potential. Take Sunil Narine, as an opener, for example. There were question marks over that move, but at the end of the day, the West Indian proved to be a massive game-changer.

Another player who hardly got chances before was pacer Ramandeep Singh. The 27 year-old was with the Mumbai Indians in 2022, and only got to play five games. This season at KKR, the Chandigarh-born cricketer played 15 matches and took nine wickets.

Then there’s Mitchell Starc, who had a rough start to the season but found his rhythm as the season progressed .

As far as Iyer is concerned, with each and every setback, he found a way to bounce back and silence his critics. Be it the ODI World Cup, where he scored consecutive centuries against Netherlands and New Zealand, or the IPL this year. His back injury, however, returned to haunt him after the World Cup, which kept him out for a long time.

“I was definitely struggling after the World Cup, in terms of the longer format. When I raised my concern, no one was agreeing to it. But at the same time the competition is with myself," he had said ahead of the IPL final.

The only difference being that, in the IPL it wasn’t his batting that made the headlines regularly but his captaincy. In particular, the way Iyer, Gambhir and Chandrakant Pandit masterminded KKR’s IPL triumph this year, will be a story for the ages in T20 league’s history.

Without Gambhir and Pandit, Shreyas would not have got the support he needed and KKR may not have been able to pull off a title victory like this. Simply put, barring one or two matches, KKR were clinical in all aspects, and more so dominant in the final .