Replacing Karthik with Morgan as KKR captain not a right move: Agarkar

New Delhi, October 20

Former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar feels replacing Dinesh Karthik with Eoin Morgan as captain of Kolkata Knight Riders was a very strange and wrong move.

Ahead of their match against Mumbai Indians on October 16 in the ongoing IPL, Karthik stepped down as KKR skipper and handed over the reign to World Cup-winning England captain Morgan. Karthik had taken the decision with a “view to focus on his batting and contributing more to the team’s cause”.

“I don’t think replacing Dinesh Karthik after seven games when you’re sitting fourth in the table is the right move in my opinion. It does add to the disruption of the team and you could see the way they performed against Mumbai Indians, even though it was a tough game,” said Agarkar while speaking on Star Sports’ show ‘Fanweek’.

KKR lost the match against the defending champions as the Rohit Sharma-led side rode on an unbeaten 78 from Quinton de Kock to chase down 149 with eight wickets in hand.

“I don’t think it was a right move. You make plans with a certain captain through the course of the year and in spite of sitting fourth on the table, it was a very strange move for me,” Agarkar added.

However, KKR came back with an improved performance in their next match against SunRisers Hyderabad, winning the nail-biting encounter in the Super Over last Sunday.

The team is currently sitting at the fourth spot with 10 points from nine matches and is slated to take on Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday. IANS