Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Dinesh Karthik has decided to step down from his position as captain and handed over the reign to teammate Eoin Morgan for the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 season.
Karthik has led KKR in 7 games so far out of which they have won 4 games and are placed 4th on the IPL 2020 points table.
Venky Mysore, CEO of KKR while quoted by India Today said, "We are fortunate to have leaders such as DK, who has always put the team first. It takes a lot of courage for someone like him to take a decision such as this. While we were surprised by his decision, we are respectful of his wishes."
"We are also fortunate that Eoin Morgan, the 2019 World Cup-winning captain, who has been the vice captain, is willing to lead the side going forward. DK and Eoin have worked brilliantly together during this tournament and although Eoin takes over as captain, this is effectively a role swap and we expect that this transition will work in a seamless manner," said Mysore.
"On behalf of everyone at Kolkata Knight Riders, we thank DK for all his contributions as captain over the past two and a half years and wish Eoin the very best going forward," Mysore added.
Karthik has led KKR in 37 games since 2018 in which he has won 19 and lost 17. KKR had qualified for the playoffs in DK's debut season with the team as skipper, finishing 3rd in 2018 but failed to make the knockouts last year after ending 5th in the league stage.
Notably, Karthik had the second-best win-percentage (52.70%) among all KKR skippers after two-time IPL-winning captain Gautam Gambhir (57.43%) but still took the decision to hand over the leadership to Morgan, who lifted the 50-over ICC World Cup for England last year on home soil.
