Under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer, Kolkata Knight Riders won the IPL title, tallying their number of titles to 3. In the encounter against the lethal SRH, Iyer's men emerged victorious pulling off a clinical victory. And along with Gautam Gambhir, it was Shreyas Iyer who was highly applauded for the leadership qualities he displayed. It was great to see him end up on the winning side against World cup winning captain Pat Cummins. Because not too long ago, he was at the receiving end of criticism from everyone. This IPL title win is not just a story of tournament victory, it is a tale of Iyer's redemption too.

Not too long back, if one could remember that Iyer was one of the players who was fined by the BCCI. It all happened while the series against England was going on. Iyer who was a part of the series was termed unfit due to back spasm and back injuries, which ruled him out of the series. And as per the protocol for every player, he had to rush back to the National Cricket Academy. He was treated and his rehab was properly done for quite some amount of time. He recovered, but was still far away from being called fit. There were speculations whether he was completely fit or not, but he denied all those by saying that he was not ready to play.

The same time the most prestigious tournament of Indian domestic circuit, Ranji Trophy was going on. And the suddenly awakened BCCI had instructed all the players to come ahead and play for their respective Ranji teams. A flurry of players like Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya chose not to play. Shreyas opted out of the trophy due to his injury, but the NCA doctor under someone's influence said that he was fit to play and had ruled himself out as he didn't want to be out there. The series of events which happened eventually led the BCCI to take action against him. Iyer and Ishan Kishan were made scapegoats of the decision, whereas someone like Pandya was awarded a BCCI A Contract.

BCCI and experts criticized him for being unavailable for Ranji, alleging that he wanted himself to be fit for the cash rich IPL. In process the board didn't understand that they were themselves contradicting their own decision that if he was fit to play before the series ended, the board should've have recalled him for the series rather than asking him to play Ranji. The board didn't do it because they knew that Iyer had issues, and that they just made him the scapegoat to save few bigger but their favourite names, while setting an example by framing some international players. The scapegoat politics was visible clearly visible, when the board decided to throw away the same player from the central contract, who had a lion's share by scoring a massive hundred against our nemesis New Zealand in the semi-finals of World Cup.

Having no option he had to accept the disciplinary action against him. With time everyone moved on, the spectators forgot what had happened to him and he started to play again. And while he played again in the IPL, his signs of incomplete recovery were visible. He suffered from back aches and was not completely fit to play. It was the biggest evidence of what he was saying back then that he wasn't fit to play for the Mumbai Ranji Team. But petty politics from BCCI and their urge to save their favourite players cost him his contract, with no mistake from his side. And now he had only one option to regain the trust of fans, which was by playing well and performing better to eventually silence his critics with his actions. And he did it.

He had the herculean task of taking his team back to glory. His team had performed poorly in the previous few editions, and he was absent in the last season due to injury which didn't allow him to participate. He had to fight back to live up to the expectations of KKR fans. And he excelled in it. He had already proved his mettle as a leader when he captained Delhi Capitals in 2020 and 2021. He took the Delhi Capitals to the only final they ever played till date. And he did the same with KKR. Under the mentoring of Gautam Gambhir, he brought glory to his team in some style, thereby allowing them to have their name on the prestigious trophy for the 3rd time. And knowingly or unknowingly he redeemed himself of what had happened to him.

There was never a second thought in anyone's mind on the leadership abilities of Shreyas Iyer. Everyone knew that he possesses the right set of skills a captain requires. And with what he did yesterday, he proved the world of how much capable he is of doing the same. He is a natural leader, and was always destined to be the Indian skipper in 4-5 years, but injuries stunted his progress. He also lost Delhi Capitals captaincy due to the same injury, and further lost his place from the BCCI Central contract. But now, gladly he is back on the track. And he has beautifully redeemed himself while making a silent rebellious statement to the board. Hopefully the redemption of Iyer will help the board realize the scapegoat politics they played, and one would expect them to refrain from doing so going ahead. Whether it will happen or not, only time will tell. But one can be sure that Iyer's tale of redemption will serve as an example and inspiration to everyone, who wants to break the shackles of injustice to eventually emerge victorious.