IPL 2020: Is Dinesh Karthik's KKR captaincy under threat?

Dinesh Karthik was roped in by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as the successor of Gautam Gambhir in 2018. Under his leadership, the side managed to reach the playoffs in the very first season, while they managed to finish in the fifth spot last season.

Dinesh Karthik has been expected as the best-suited successor for Gautam Gambhir as the KKR skipper, ever since the latter parted ways, following the 2017 season. However, Karthik has had mixed luck with the side so far.

Meanwhile, legendary former Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar, feels that Karthik could be under pressure to lead his side to the playoffs, as failure to do so could cost him his role as the captain. Gavaskar also feels that in case KKR do not get off to a good start, Karthik could well be replaced this season itself, as he labels Eoin Morgan as the next best choice for the role.

"Kolkata Knight Riders is such a team that has a very attractive and aggressive batting order. But, the addition of Eoin Morgan to the middle-order has added more stability and experience to it. Thus, he can prove to be very dangerous," said Gavaskar.

"Even this can happen that if in the first four-five games if KKR do not start well, then Eoin Morgan can replace Dinesh Karthik as the captain of the side, because we always have had that complex," he added.

Karthik is one of the veterans of the tournament, who has been playing ever since the tournament's inception. He started his IPL career with Delhi Daredevils (DD) and has played for six teams so far. KKR is his first team as captain.

As far as Karthik's IPL career is concerned, he has scored 3,654 runs in 163 innings at an average of 27.1, including 18 half-centuries. As captain, he has led KKR in 30 matches so far, winning and losing 15 each.

Meanwhile, Morgan has had a good stint in IPL so far. He has scored 854 runs in 45 innings at an average of 21.4. Although he has never led in the IPL, he is the reigning captain of England. Since 2009, he has led England in 51 T20Is, winning 50 and losing 20.

KKR have won two titles so far, all that have come under the leadership of Gambhir. Their last title win was back in 2014, when they beat Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the final.