Eoin Morgan says KKR's captaincy transition was a smooth one

In a recent video shared by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), skipper Eoin Morgan shared his thoughts about the change of leadership midway through the tournament last year. Dinesh Karthik stepped down from the captaincy role and Morgan was handed the reins.

Morgan emphasized that it wasn't an emotional decision by the Indian wicket-keeper batsman. Karthik had a string of failures with the bat and wanted to focus on his batting.

After leading the team in the first seven games (4 wins, 3 losses), Dinesh Karthik decided to hand over the reins to Eoin Morgan in IPL 2020. Speaking about this transition, the Englishman termed it to be a 'seamless' one.

"I was delighted to be taken on board, but given that I have captained a lot over the years, it's been indeed a seamless transition," Eoin Morgan said.

Speaking about the role of head coach Brendon McCullum and his assistant Abhishek Nayar during this shift, Eoin Morgan said:

"Baz (McCullum) and Abhishek Nayar had done such an incredible job of communicating to the players. Their relationship with DK and myself and even the senior players were so good that the transition was quite seamless and I actually didn't give it a great deal of thought."

Eoin Morgan said it was a well-thought and altruistic decision by Karthik to step down. The England limited-overs captain lauded Dinesh for being highly courageous.

"It wasn't an emotional decision. He (Karthik) was actually very logical and selfless from his point of view and to show the courage to step down in the middle of the competition based on (what) you think is better for the team, is incredibly courageous," said Morgan.

Understanding. Passion. And most of all, commitment to the cause. Watch how these 3 elements resulted in a change of guard in the KKR ranks in our newest production, Smooth Transition 🎬Payments on @amazonIN #PayAmazonSe #KKRHaiTaiyaar #IPL2021 https://t.co/BFRAXI3FWr
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 16, 2021

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"I wanted to give Eoin Morgan a chance because it was really important" - Dinesh Karthik

The video shared by KKR also revealed that Dinesh Karthik first had the thought of stepping down as captain after the team's 5th match against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Speaking about what went through his mind as he handed over the responsibility to Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik said:

"I wanted to give Morgan a chance because it was really important, we had played seven and there were seven more games to go, so we had enough time. It would have been very unfair of me to move on if we were doing so badly that we had no chance further in the tournament."

Dinesh Karthik further added that both he and Eoin Morgan are people who put the team ahead of everything else. Thus, he felt it was easier to make the decision.

"In the 2.5 years that I have led the team, I think I earned the trust of the boys. I think that's very important as a leader. They know for a fact that they would get a lot of honesty from me. That makes things easy and Morgan is very similar to me on that front. I think the boys believed that both the people put the team ahead of themselves and that's why the decision was taken," Karthik said.

Dinesh Karthik led the Kolkata Knight Riders in 37 games and won 19 of those matches.