The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is all set to begin their new era with new skipper Dinesh Karthik when they will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their season opener on April 8.
However, there were a lot of eyebrows raised when Karthik was named as Captain of the side, while the time will tell whether they made right decision or not, and to be proved like their most successful skipper, Gautam Gambhir, or not, but their batting Coach – Simon Katich feels that the franchise made the right decision.
Simon believes that Karthik is at the right stage in his career to lead the IPL side, as he is highly experienced IPL player, as well as, he has done a decent job with Tamil Nadu, which will certainly help him to "get the best out of the team" in the coming season.
As per IANS, Katich told reporters on Thursday, “He's in the perfect time of his career to really grab the opportunity. He's done that with Tamil Nadu with a fair bit of success. We see that as a bonus for us.”
On being asked if the pressure of captaincy would affect his batting, the former Aussie said, “First and foremost, will be to give guidance to this group. He's got a lot of experienced players around him, particularly in the overseas group, and there is (Piyush) Chawla, R Vinay Kumar, Robin (Uthappa, vice-captain) ... our role is to take the pressure off, as possibly as we can.”
Simon went to further said of Karthik, “He will get a lot of help there. Our captain Dinesh Karthik has been in very good form for India recently. We hope he will continue that form he showed in India recently. He's a highly experienced player in the IPL, and has played for 10 years. He will play a crucial role in the middle as skipper. It fills us with a lot of confidence.”
Meanwhile, Katich also commented on Gambhir, who will lead Delhi Daredevils in the IPL 2018, saying he got a lot of success while leading KKR and a fantastic player, but the KKR has enough experienced players to fill Gambhir's void in the KKR squad.
He signed off by saying, “Gautam has been a fantastic player, made a lot of runs and got a lot of success while he was the captain. We feel that we have got some experienced players to fill in the role at top of the order.”
