Aakash Chopra predicts KKR's future captain, wants team to follow MI and DC's footsteps

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) recently announced a list of all their retentions for the upcoming Indian Premier League 2021 (IPL 2021) season. The franchise confirmed that 17 of their players, including Shubman Gill, will be reprising their roles for them in this year’s competition. Moreover, the franchise will be looking to further enhance their squad through new additions at the IPL auction, scheduled to be organised on February 18.

BCCI confirms IPL auction date

🚨ALERT🚨: IPL 2021 Player Auction on 18th February🗓️

Venue 📍: Chennai

How excited are you for this year's Player Auction? 😎👍

Set your reminder folks 🕰️ pic.twitter.com/xCnUDdGJCa

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) January 27, 2021

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Aakash Chopra backs Shubman Gill as KKR’s future captain

On Saturday, January 30, former Indian cricketer and expert commentator Aakash Chopra took to his YouTube channel to express his views on the KKR line-up for the IPL 2021 season. The former opening batsman believes that KKR should appoint 21-year-old Shubman Gill as their vice-captain, in order to groom him for future captaincy. Chopra is of the opinion that the KKR camp should follow the footsteps of Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals by building their team around Gill.

The commentator cited the examples of Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer and their success as captains of their respective IPL franchises. The Mumbai Indians appointed Sharma as their captain back during IPL 2013 while the Delhi Capitals named Iyer as their skipper in 2019. Chopra believes that franchises need to develop a similar understanding while preparing their talented youngsters to become their future leaders.

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Shubman Gill career

Shubman Gill joined the KKR camp in 2018. Since then, he has represented the franchise in 41 matches where he has aggregated 939 runs at an average of 33.53. The right-handed batsman also recently starred in India’s Test series win in Australia, even though it was the first Test assignment of his career.

KKR list of retained players 2021

Apart from Shubman Gill, KKR veterans Dinesh Karthik, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell are also slated to reprise their roles in the upcoming IPL 2021 season. Here is a look at the entire KKR list of retained players for 2021.

Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill among KKR list of retentions, watch video

📣 Meet the Retained Knights for #IPL2021#KKR #Cricket pic.twitter.com/dkW857CWX8

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) January 20, 2021

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Image source: PTI and IPLT20.COM