Sunil Gavaskar Backs Eoin Morgan To Replace Dinesh Karthik As KKR Captain If The Team Does Not Begin Well
Updated - 20 Sep 2020, 06:34 PM
Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has tipped for Eoin Morgan to take over Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain if Dinesh Karthik if the franchise does not start well. The two-time champions secured Eoin Morgan’s services in the auction for INR 5.25 crores to strengthen their middle-order. With Morgan enjoying a successful stint as England’s limited-overs skipper, Sunil Gavaskar thinks he could replace Karthik too.
Dinesh Karthik took over from Gautam Gambhir as the captain of KKR in 2018. He guided the franchise to the playoffs in 2018; however, it finished fifth in the last edition. The team suffered quite a lot of batting collapses that resulted in the side’s underwhelming display. Karthik’s own performance was not satisfactory, having managed 253 runs in 14 games at 31.63. Hence, the 35-year old must put a better show this year.
Sunil Gavaskar highlighted the aggressiveness and attractiveness of Kolkata’s batting line-up. He credited the addition of Eoin Morgan, owing to which there is more stability and experience to the middle-order and proving more dangerous. Gavaskar backs the southpaw to replace the keeper-batsman to replace Karthik as skipper if KKR does not begin their campaign well.
“Kolkata Knight Riders is such a team that has a very attractive and aggressive batting order. But the addition of Eoin Morgan to the middle-order has added more stability and experience to it. Thus, he can prove to be very dangerous. Even this can happen that if in the first four-five games if KKR do not start well, then Eoin Morgan can replace Dinesh Karthik as the captain of the side because we always have had that complex,” Gavaskar told Sports Tak.
“Whenever you are a costly player, the weight of the price tag is always there” : Sunil Gavaskar
The 125-Test veteran further said that KKR has the costliest player in Pat Cummins while also having a massive cricketer in Andre Russell. Gavaskar stated that the price tag of INR 15.5 crores and his performance being inconsistent against England in white-ball cricket would add the pressure on Cummins to perform. The Dinesh Karthik-led side will play their first game against Mumbai Indians on the 23rd of September in Abu Dhabi.
“KKR have the biggest T20 player in Andre Russell, but they also have the costliest player in Pat Cummins. In the recently concluded limited-overs series between Australia and England, his performance was not impressive. So there will be some kind of pressure on him. Whenever you are a costly player, the weight of the price tag is always there. Will he play all the matches? that is also something that we will need to look at,” he added.
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Indian Premier League 2020 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Sunil Gavaskar
