Dinesh Karthik has decided to hand over the Kolkata Knight Riders captaincy to England’s World Cup winning captain, Eoin Morgan, the franchise announced on Friday. Dinesh Karthik steps down as skipper ‘to focus on his batting and contributing more to the team’s cause,’ the statement added.
The development wasn’t unexpected as Dinesh Karthik captaincy was under scanner due to inconsistent performance. But surprisingly it comes with just a few hours before KKR’s next match, against the Mumbai Indians on Friday night at Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
In IPL 2020, under the captaincy of Dinesh Karthik, Kolkata Knight Riders have won 4 of the 7 matches and are 4th on the IPL 2020 points table. Karthik is also struggling with the bat and had scored only 108 runs at an average of 15.42 in 7 matches.
Venky Mysore, CEO of KKR 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. We are also 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.”
