Dinesh Karthik recently talked about his decision to step down as captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the middle of the IPL 2020. He said it was his call and no one forced him to hand over the captaincy to Eoin Morgan.
Interacting with Gaurav Kapur, the renowned sports presenter, in his podcast '22 Yarns', Karthik felt he was the problem for their poor outing in IPL 2020 season. He received support from the team management after announcing the decision to not continue as captain.
"We were aware of it. I think a lot of credit should be given to KKR because they handled it very well. They understood my situation. I was the problem, nobody else. From the moment, I'm not very sure, then they're like 'fine, there's Morgan'. He (Morgan) actually was very reluctant," Karthik said.
"For him, he's captaining England, such a high-pressure thing. He wants to come and play the IPL and enjoy it. And he was thoroughly enjoying it up to the point. He was vice-captain so basically, it's about helping me."
Karthik took over the role in 2018 and KKR had finished at number three in the points table. Next year, they failed to qualify for the playoffs after finishing at number five. The same position continued in IPL 2020 after Karthik quit the captaincy halfway in the tournament. They were at number four after seven matches with eight points.
The 36-year-old struggled with the bat in the IPL 2020 season. He scored only one fifty and ended the tournament with 169 runs at an average of 14.08.
"But when I said this, he (Morgan) said 'no, no'. And we were high on the table too; we had played some seven games and won four. We were No. 4 or 3 on the table. He said 'are you crazy? Why would you do this? I don't understand what you're trying to do.' Then I explained things to him," Karthik said.
"Personally, what was happening and then it was something that was more about my personal issues that happened rather than it being cricket or the franchise or anything like that. So when the personal issue happened, that was the main reason and then he said, 'Ok, I'll do it.' And it was handled very well by KKR… Venky Mysore, Shahrukh."
(With '22 Yarns' Podcast Inputs)
