IPL 2020: ‘He could’ve changed a lot of things had he captained from the start’ – Gautam Gambhir on KKR’s new captain Morgan

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have confirmed that captain Dinesh Karthik has handed over his captaincy duties to Eoin Morgan for the rest of the Indian Premier League. Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has strongly reacted to Karthik’s decision. He on Star Sports said that Morgan won’t be able to change things in the middle of the tournament.

When Gambhir asked about whether the courtship between Morgan and head coach Brendon McCullum can get KKR to new highs, he said, “Cricket is not about relationships, it’s about performances and honestly, I don’t think Morgan can change a lot of things. He could’ve changed a lot of things had he captained from the start of the tournament. No one changes during the middle of the tournament. It’s nice to have a good relationship between the coach and the captain.”

Furthermore, Gambhir said that the franchise was not in that bad position that they need a new captain in the middle of the IPL 2020.“I’ll be surprised. He’s leading KKR for the last 2 and a half years. You don’t do it in the middle of the season. KKR is not in that bad a position that someone needs to change a captain, so yeah little bit surprised.“

‘My situation was very different to what DK’s situation is’ – Gautam Gambhir

The former KKR skipper who led the side to two titles in the year 2012 and 2014, added that Morgan was appointed as captain at the beginning of the season if they wanted to do it same. He also withheld to compare his decision to give up the captaincy for Delhi Daredevils in 2018.

”If KKR wanted to make this change, they should have done it at the start of the competition. If you are talking so much about a World Cup-winning captain being there in your team puts pressure on someone like Dinesh Karthik then why not just give it to Morgan straightaway, why put so much pressure on Karthik? My point is, it sounds very good when someone says that I want to concentrate on my batting but the truth is, you start getting fillers from the management whether they are happy or not, so it’s very unfortunate,” Gambhir said

“My situation was very different to what DK’s situation is. I only captained Delhi for 7 games and DK is captaining KKR for the last two and a half years, so obviously, the CEO, the entire management know his style of captaincy. I went to DD with a very different mindset that I want to change the fortunes of Delhi but after it didn’t happen for seven games I felt the need to step down,” he added.

Eoin Morgan-led side is still at No. 4 in the IPL 2020 points table with 8 points in eight matches. KKR faced two successive defeats against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.

Also read: IPL 2020: ‘It’s a selfless decision’ – Eoin Morgan praises Dinesh Karthik for putting the team first