Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Gautam Gambhir lambasted current KKR skipper Eoin Morgan after the Irishman was spotted receiving hints and signals from team analyst Nathan Leamon during the game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday.
The strategy clearly didn’t work out, as KKR ended up losing the thrilling contest by two wickets. CSK all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja single-handedly took the game away from the Knight Riders after he smashed 22 runs off the 19th over bowled by Prasidh Krishna.
Gambhir wasn’t happy with the way Morgan captained and especially the suggestions he was getting from outside. The former India opener was quizzed by Aakash Chopra as to what Gambhir would have done after being given such an analyst. The cricketer-turned-politician came up with a savage response and said he would have quit captaincy in such circumstances.
“When all the messages are being given from outside, there is no need of a captain on the ground. Had I been in this situation, I would have given up the captaincy. This is not the right way,” said Gambhir on Star Sports.
Notably, KKR included the England cricket team’s analyst Leamon in their think tank to strengthen their support staff. The partnership of Morgan and Leamon has delivered spectacular results for the England team in international white-ball cricket. However, the duo has failed to replicate the same in the cash-rich league.
After the match, KKR mentor David Hussey revealed that Andre Russell would have bowled the penultimate over had he not gotten injured during the game.
“Of course, when Andre went out of the park, he had one over to bowl. Was he going to bowl it, nobody really knows. He bowled particularly well upfront, so he probably was gonna bowl the 19th over,” said Hussey during a virtual presser.
Hussey stated that Prasidh has been a great bowler for KKR in the death, but Jadeja got the better of him.
“Prasidh Krishna has been an amazing death-over bowler for us. Yeah, he is definitely in our plans, unfortunately, he got beaten by a better player today in Jadeja. Knowing Prasidh Krishna, he is going to come back and dominate,” added Hussey.
