Gautam Gambhir expressed his thoughts on Dinesh Karthik batting ahead of Eoin Morgan in KKR vs DC clash.
Former Team India cricketer Gautam Gambhir gave his verdict on Dinesh Karthik's below-average display with the bat during KKR's 18-run loss against Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2020.
Gambhir, who captained KKR in two league winning campaigns in 2012 and 2014, spoke on the topic of Karthik sending himself ahead of Eoin Morgan in the batting line up.
According to the former opener, the current KKR skipper should demote himself to no.6 and send the likes of Morgan and Andre Russell up the order.
"Rahul Tripathi goes up the order, Dinesh Karthik plays at no 6, not before Morgan and not before Russell as well. Probably Sunil Narine goes to bat at 8 or 9. If Morgan bats no 4 and Russell at 5 and Dinesh Karthik to follow," Gambhir said while speaking to ESPNcricinfo.
"Your best bowlers need to ball the 18th, 19th and 20th over, unfortunately it didn’t happen. Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine — if a spinner has to bowl. Even Mavi, he did a fabulous job in the previous games and so did Andre Russell. You have to got to give your best bowlers."
"Yes Varun Chakravarty did bowl well in the first few overs but you cannot expect a young spinner to be bowling the 19th over and that too in Sharjah, probably it was a miscalculation," he added.
In chase of a mammoth target of 229, KKR got off to the worst possible start possible as they lost Sunil Narine in the second over of the match for just 3 runs.
Opener Shubman Gill then formed a decent partnership with Nitish Rana as they kept the scoreboard ticking. However, Amit Mishra's spin magic helped DC to break the partnership as Gill departed after scoring 28 runs.
Andre Russell (13) once again struggled to get going as Rabada sent the big West Indian back to the dressing room after an excellent delivery.
Rana (58) secured his 9th IPL half-century, however, both he and Dinesh Karthik (6) were sent back to the dressing room by pacer Harshal Patel back-to-back deliveries, reducing KKR to 112/6.
After Nortje cleaned up Cummins' wicket, KKR found a new surge with Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi in the middle. The pair stuck the ball exquisitely before Nortje once again came up with the goods for DC and dismissed Morgan on 44.
Tripathi (36) tried hard till the end but Stoinis' yorker cleaned up his stumps with KKR finishing on 210/8 while Kamlesh Nagarkoti (3*) and Shivam Mavi (1*) staying unbeaten.
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 "Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Karthik, Gambhir, IPL 2020, IPL in UAE, KKR vs DC, KKR, Kolkata Knight Riders,")
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