India legend backs Eoin Morgan to take KKR to the next level
The Kolkata Knight Riders last won the Indian Premier League back in 2014 and have since struggled for consistency but former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that Eoin Morgan could hold the key to a resurgence.
Gavaskar is a big fan of Morgan’s leadership and feels that giving him the captaincy might unlock the potential of the squad.
Eoin Morgan backed for KKR captaincy
Morgan led England to their maiden Cricket World Cup triumph in 2019 and has been in phenomenal form with the bat coming into the Indian Premier League.
“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,” Gavaskar said in an interview on Youtube cricket show Sports Tak.
The 1983 World Cup winner feels that KKR management should not be afraid to strip Dinesh Karthik of the franchise captaincy if the 2020 campaign doesn’t start as well as expected.
“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 said.
The Knight Riders will be the last of the eight teams to get their IPL season underway when they face the defending champion Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday 23 September.
Pressure on Cummins and Russell
KKR’s owners are hungry for success in the league which they have won twice, in 2012 and 2014, but Gavaskar says there will be tremendous pressure on their star men Andre Russell and Pat Cummins.
“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,” Gavaskar said.
“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.”
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