IPL 2021 | Kolkata Knight Riders should remove Eoin Morgan from captaincy, says Aakash Chopra

The Kolkata Knight Riders suffered a five-wicket defeat against Punjab Kings on Friday, October in Dubai. The Kolkata-based franchise are currently placed fourth on the points table but they will have to pull up their socks to stay alive in the race to playoffs in IPL 2021. The 2014 champions had a brilliant start to the UAE leg of IPL, winning three of their starting four matches, but the performance of Eoin Morgan has remained a concern. The southpaw has managed to score only 109 runs from 12 matches at an average of 10.90.

Considering the England captain's form, cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra has stated that the Kolkata-based franchise should think of a captaincy change and there is no shame in it. He also quoted Gautam Gambhir’s decision to quit captaincy in 2014 IPL after his poor performance. The former Indian cricketer further added that it is time to bring in Shakib Al Hasan in place of Morgan.

“Kolkata, I request you with folded hands. I am giving you two or three options. Firstly, change the captain, you have done it before and there's no shame in it. I was talking to Gautam recently. He talked about the 2014 season, saying he couldn't score any runs in the first three games so he went to the coach and said, ‘I am not able to do it, let me just sit out because I am not contributing’,” Chopra said in a video uploaded on his Youtube channel.

“Morgan would have thought the same because it's been 11 innings and he's averaging 10. We are not seeing any great decisions in captaincy in your team selections and all of that either. So maybe it's time to bring Shakib Al Hasan in place of Morgan,” he added.

Speaking on Morgan’s captaincy, Chopra reckoned that the southpaw has failed in choosing the correct playing XI in the recent matches. 

“You can't play Seifert if you are not getting him to bat in the top-order. So replace him with Ben Cutting. Do something because you don't have Lockie so you've got to have at least five bowlers. Five bowlers plus Venkatesh Iyer is alright but four bowlers plus Venkatesh Iyer? It just doesn't make sense my friend. I honestly don't get how you can expect so much from him. He's doing well but he is not Superman,” Chopra said.

“When you write those names on the sheet, please see how many bowlers there are because there's no point in playing this much batting. You said you don't have the balance without Russell but you also said that there's a specific role for Ben Cutting. There won't be a better role than this. At least play him if you don't like Shakib. In fact, play Shakib too and tell Eoin Morgan, 'it's not working out'. It happens to everyone... but tends to hurt a little more if it's an overseas captain,” Chopra added.

Kolkata Knight Riders will next lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday, October 3.