Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has slammed Dinesh Karthik for handing over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captaincy to Eoin Morgan midway through the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
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Karthik relinquished the post to focus on his batting but his performance has not improved.
Gambhir, who led KKR to two IPL titles during his tenure from 2011 to 2017, said he too has gone through bad form but explained that it was captaincy that helped him come out of it.
“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," Gambhir told cricket.com. "What I’ve realized 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."
In 13 innings this season, Karthik has aggregated only 169 runs at a strike rate of 127.06. He has often struggled while batting up the order and managed to register just one half-century.
KKR are currently at the sixth spot in the team standings with 12 points. They are in a must-win situation going into their last league fixture against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday (November 1). However, even a victory doesn’t ensure them a place in the play-offs due to their poor Net Run Rate.
