Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are still finding form in the concurrent season of IPL underway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They lost the first match against Mumbai Indians (MI), then won two consecutive matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). Recently they lost the outing versus a raging Delhi Capitals (DC). Many debates circled across social media whether KKR should stick to Dinesh Karthik as the skipper or appoint Eoin Morgan to lead the remaining T20 season. Brad Hogg explains why Eoin Morgan shouldn’t replace Dinesh Karthik as KKR captain.
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Former Australian cricketer and a member of KKR in 2015-16, Brad Hogg, believes that Morgan is a great captain. Though personally, he would love to see him donning the skipper’s role, still Dinesh Karthik remains the ideal choice in the current scenario. He added that Karthik has been good so far and what he can do is utilize the skill and experience that the English cricketer brings onto the table.
“Look, I’d love this move to make Eoin Morgan KKR captain. Morgan is a great captain, and when you got someone like that in your team, you got to utilize those skills. But Dinesh Karthik is doing a good job, but he has to utilize Morgan’s skills,” replied Hogg to a fan’s question on his YouTube channel.
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The criticisms that popped up on social media were owing to KKR’s bowling rotations and the batting order.
In the last game against Delhi Capitals, Karthik handed the ball to spinner Varun Chakravarthy in the penultimate over, who ended up conceding 20 runs, and the score went past 220. Pacers Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti had an over each, while veteran spinner Sunil Narine had two overs remaining.
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During the chase of 229, opener Sunil Narine was dismissed for merely 3 runs. Andre Russell, who was promoted at No.4 for his big-hitting, got out to Kagiso Rabada after scoring just 13 runs.
Skipper Dinesh Karthik (6) couldn’t do much damage himself. Then, Eoin Morgan whacked an 18-ball 44 with four and 5 sixes and forged a 78-run partnership with Rahul Tripathi (36,16b), who primarily is a top-order batsman but batted at No. 8 in the previous game.
KKR eventually lost the game by a margin of 18-runs.
I would stick with Dinesh Karthik: Brad Hogg
Hogg said there’s the liberty of making use of four foreign players and making Morgan a sure shot pick as a captain would make it difficult for him to be dropped if in case he suffers a dip in form. Once again, he pointed out that Dinesh Karthik should make the most of Morgan’s experience.
“You gotta realize in their team they can only play four overseas players. If Morgan starts finding a little bit of misfortune with his form, they have to bring in Tom Banton. Having him as a captain will make it difficult to drop Morgan. So, I would stick with Dinesh Karthik, but utilize Morgan’s experience,” said the 49-year-old.
Currently placed at the 4th spot with an NRR of -0.121, KKR will lock horns with MS Dhoni-captained Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
