Eoin Morgan discloses why Dinesh Karthik batted ahead of him vs Mumbai Indians

Eoin Morgan: The newly-elected captain of Kolkata Knight Riders laid emphasis on flexibility in the batting order in IPL 2020.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan admitted that his team was down and out from the word go in their match against Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi tonight.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Morgan witnessed MI dismissing half their side by the 11th over. An 87-run partnership between Morgan (39 not out) and Pat Cummins (53 not out) somehow aided Kolkata in scoring 148/5 in 20 overs but the same wasn’t enough against an authoritative defending champions.

“We weren’t in the race at all really, being four or five down. Managed to get a score on the board but when Mumbai [Indians] like that, they are hard to stop. Guys fought hard but just not enough runs on the board,” Morgan said during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Eoin Morgan discloses why Dinesh Karthik batted ahead of him vs Mumbai Indians

In the first innings, Knight Riders had received a lot of criticism after wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik (4) was sent in to bat at No. 4 ahead of Morgan. With Karthik thriving in the lower middle-order and Morgan doing well at No. 4 in the last few years, the rationale behind the same was inexplicable.

When Dinesh was the captain, everyone kept saying that he should promote Morgan ahead of himself. Now, Morgan is the captain and he’s sent Dinesh ahead of himself. The more we change, the more we remain the same, perhaps 😇 #IPL2020 #KKR

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 16, 2020

Being asked about the same, Morgan laid emphasis on adopting flexibility in their batting order especially between positions 4-6 which includes players of the likes of Morgan, Karthik and Andre Russell.

“No. 4, 5 and 6, we have lot of experience. Given the match-ups, we are trying to play our best hand there. Today it didn’t make that much of a difference; we were all in early,” Morgan concluded.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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