Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Chandrakant Pandit is hoping that their full time skipper Shreyas Iyer will return to action "very soon" and until then, he expects Nitish Rana to do well in the high-pressure leadership role.

A recurring back injury is likely to keep Iyer out of action for the first half of the IPL. He had also missed the first and fourth Test against Australia due to the persistent back issues.