Eoin Morgan, the 2019 ICC World Cup-winning skipper will take Kolkata Knight Riders under his leadership too. The decision was made after Dinesh Karthik decided to relinquish captaincy in order to achieve more through his batting. Under Karthik’s reigns, Kolkata won four out of seven matches in the tournament and are currently on the fourth on the points table.
When asked about the change in captaincy to the CEO of KKR, Venky Mysore, he said, “We are fortunate to have leaders such as DK, who has always put the team first. It takes a lot of courage for someone like him to take a decision such as this. While we were surprised by his decision, we are respectful of his wishes.”
He also had praise for the new skipper Eoin Morgan. He said, “We are fortunate that Eoin Morgan, the 2019 World Cup-winning captain, who has been the vice-captain, is willing to lead the side going forward. DK and Eoin have worked brilliantly together during this tournament and although Eoin takes over as captain, this is effectively a role swap and we expect that this transition will work in a seamless manner.”
Dinesh Karthik’s 58 off 29 against Kings XI Punjab has been his best knock in IPL 2020 and he is not satisfied with how he has performed overall so far. He took this decision as it was his explosive batting that led to his comeback in the Indian cricket team after several years, it was his batting that got him selected for the World Cup and that is why he feels he can do much more with the bat.
His performance in the Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh was one of the most iconic ones and those are the kind of performances that he wants for his team in the IPL. Kolkata’s last IPL game against RCB was a disappointing one as they suffered an 82-run defeat.
A better batting performance will also increase his chances for getting picked for the national side and that is one more reason why Karthik wants to focus more on his batting. However, being fourth means they still can do much better in the tournament and they are certainly better than several other teams beneath them. Considering Karthik’s decision to step down, it will be interesting to see how massive a change it brings in his approach and his style of batting.
featured image credits- CircleofCricket
