Gautam Gambhir doesn’t hold back when giving his expert views about the game. The former cricketer has now slammed Dinesh Karthik for leaving Kolkata Knight Riders captaincy mid-way in the season. The wicket-keeper batsman handed over the captaincy to world cup winning skipper Eoin Morgan.
This came as a shock to everyone as no one saw the change of KKR captaincy coming in the middle of the season. However, Karthik was selfless and admitted that he wanted to focus more on his batting hence he handed the reins of captaincy to Morgan.
Gautam Gambhir Slams Dinesh Karthik
Former KKR captain Gambhir is still unhappy by the decision made by Karthik. Gambhir questioned the mindset of Karthik for quitting leadership just to focus on his individual game.
The former cricketer recalled the 2014 IPL season when he was having a horror run with the bat while leading KKR. Gambhir pointed out that it was the burden of leadership which helped him regain his batting form. He added that as captain you have less time to think when you are not scoring runs as you are just focused on leading your side to victory.
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Gambhir said, “It just shows the mindset. You left captaincy because you wanted to concentrate on batting, but then it hasn’t worked, so probably sometimes it’s good when you take up responsibilities. What I’ve realised when I was through a worse phase in 2014. I got three ducks in a row when we started the tournament. It was captaincy that helped me that I could get back into form”.
“The reason why because when I was not batting, I was thinking about how to make the team win through my captaincy and the decision making. But when you’re not captaining, you’re thinking even more about your batting,” Gambhir said to cricket.com.
Meanwhile, since leaving captaincy, Karthik’s batting form still hasn’t been consistent. He has continued to bat in the middle order but has been unable to produce impactful performances. As a team, KKR still has an outside chance of reaching the IPL 2020 playoffs. They next face Rajasthan Royals in the night clash on Sunday at Dubai International stadium.
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