The BCCI in its SGM meeting on Saturday announced that the second half of IPL 2021 will be played in the UAE. The dates for the UAE leg is between September 17 to October 10 where the remaining 31 games including the playoffs and the final will be played. Meanwhile ahead of the start of the second half, two-time IPL winners KKR are in a spot of bother. With ECB announcing that they will not send its players for the second half of the season, they will miss their regular skipper Eoin Morgan. They will also miss Pat Cummins who was a potential replacement for Morgan for the leadership role.
Meanwhile, in this article, we will try to identify three players who can lead Kolkata Knight Riders in Eoin Morgan’s absence in the remaining IPL 2021.
Also Read: IPL 2021 To Resume From September 17, Final On October 10: Reports
IPL 2021: 3 Players Who Can Lead KKR In Eoin Morgan’s Absence
Dinesh Karthik
In 2018, Dinesh Karthik was one of KKR’s crucial buys in the IPL auction. KKR bagged him Rs 7.60 crore and later named him captain of the side. That year, he was able to take the side to the playoffs. In 2019, he was not able to lead the side properly as they missed out on a playoff berth finishing the league phase on the fifth position. Karthik won four out of his first seven games in IPL 2020 as captain before he was replaced as captain by Eoin Morgan.
Karthik is the most experienced player in the KKR camp in Morgan’s absence and he leads the race for captaincy in Morgan’s absence. Karthik’s appointment as skipper will also allow KKR to field an extra overseas player in the form of Lockie Ferguson in place of Pat Cummins who will be unavailable in the UAE leg.
Andre Russell
The big-hitting West Indian all-rounder is the next viable option for the leadership role in place of Eoin Morgan. He is a regular feature in the playing XI. He leads the Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL and there is no reason why he cannot lead KKR in IPL 2021.
One of the major concerns with Andre Russell is his fitness which is why the management might think twice before appointing him for the leadership role. He had a dream run in IPL 2019 for the side where he hit more than 50 sixes in the season and scoring over 500 runs. However, he had a forgetful stint in IPL 2020 where he scored 117 runs in 10 games while picking just six wickets.
This year he had had a better outing in the first seven games for KKR. He has scored 163 runs from seven games including a half-century against CSK. He also took seven wickets so far in the season including a fifer against Mumbai Indians. Russell remains an X-factor with both bat and ball which might help him get the role of captaincy for the first time with KKR. Also, captaincy might bring the best out of him much to the liking of the KKR fans for the rest of the season.
Sunil Narine
Suni Narine is the most capped KKR player in the current squad. He has been with the side since 2012 and is well versed with the culture of the side. The absence of Pat Cummins now opens up a spot for him to be one of the four overseas players with Russell, Tim Seifert and Ferguson being the other three based on the availability of players.
This also gives the management to assign him a leadership role for the side. He has been an invaluable player for KKR since his very first season in 2012. He has been useful more as a batter than as a bowler for the side in the last few years.
Since 2018, he has picked just 18 wickets with the ball. He has picked just three wickets from four games in this season so far. If he is chosen as the captain, he will get more games which might be useful for KKR given that there is no clarification on Shakib Al Hasan’s availability with Bangladesh playing Australia, England and New Zealand before the T20 World Cup.
Also Read: KKR Not Going To Miss Pat Cummins In Second Half Of IPL 2021: Aakash Chopra