“Smooth Transition”: How Dinesh Karthik’s KKR Became Eoin Morgan’s KKR

October 7, 2020, Abu Dhabi. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had just defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) comprehensively. After a slow start to the 13th edition of the IPL, KKR had just pulled off two consecutive wins. And that, you don’t expect would be the backdrop to the kind of conversation skipper Dinesh Karthik was about […]
 
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“Smooth Transition”: How Dinesh Karthik’s KKR Became Eoin Morgan’s KKR

October 7, 2020, Abu Dhabi. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had just defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) comprehensively. After a slow start to the 13th edition of the IPL, KKR had just pulled off two consecutive wins. And that, you don’t expect would be the backdrop to the kind of conversation skipper Dinesh Karthik was about to have with coach Brendon McCullum and Eoin Morgan.

“We were downstairs in the restaurant when he said, ‘Baz, Morgs, Venky (Mysore, KKR CEO), do you mind if I grab a few minutes of your time?’ I was like, yeah, no worries skipper. He said, ‘I think now it’s a good me to step aside’. And I was surprised because we just won a game!!”.

October 15, 2020. All KKR players were informed through a message on the phone that there is a team meeting scheduled for the day, something that surprised young Shubman Gill as “we usually don’t do that” the day before a match. In the meeting, Karthik told to them what he did to McCullum that day, and the next afternoon, officially, KKR had a new captain, midway through their campaign, in Morgan.

“If the person in question, whoever it might be in the team, isn’t feel like that they can perform for the team, the team is going to be hampered. And that’s ultimately how DK (Karthik) felt. He didn’t feel like he could be at his best and lead the team (together). So that I think made the decision a little easier for him,” said Morgan in KKR’s newly released mini-documentary titled, “Smooth Transition”, just to sum it up perfectly the trigger behind Karthik’s decision.

“Smooth Transition”: How Dinesh Karthik’s KKR Became Eoin Morgan’s KKR

As the title goes, the documentary gives us – people outside – a peek into how smoothly the captaincy transition took place within the KKR set up last year when Karthik decided to relinquish the leadership duties and hand it over to Morgan, England’s 2019 World Cup winning skipper.

Karthik, who had taken over the KKR captaincy ahead of IPL 2018 and had mixed results to show for his tenure, resigned midway through the IPL 2020 and decided to play solely as a wicketkeeper-batter in the team. While usually such decisions are reserved for before or after a season, here was Karthik announcing it midway through a campaign. But in his head, the cricketer was clear that what he is doing, is indeed best for the team.

“As a captain, during the downtime, you think a lot more about the game because you don’t think for yourself, you think for the 11-12 players who are going to be playing with you”, says Karthik in the documentary, having admitted that captaincy wasn’t allowing him to think of himself and his game as much as he needed to for the team’s sake.

It shows Karthik’s self-awareness and bravery that he was, as a matter of fact, having his worst IPL season with the bat and yet, didn’t want to cling onto captaincy and save a spot for himself every game. The cricketer was willing to put himself at a risk of being dropped from the playing XI, something that the KKR think-tank and players involved appreciated

Even though the critics made it a case of a captain leaving the ship before the destination is even in sight, within KKR, there was no shortage of respect for Karthik, as he prioritised the welfare of the team above himself.

“Incredibly courageous” is how Karthik’s decision was put into words by Morgan, for whom, while the bond with his predecessor was all strong, the challenge was to ensure that the team’s young talents, the Gills, the Nagarkotis of the team, are just as comfortable speaking to him – the new captain from abroad – as they were with “DK bhaiyya”.

In breaking the ice, to Morgan’s rescue, came Abhishek Nayar, KKR’s assistant coach. “When I was talking with Morgs, I asked him if any of the Indian boys have spoken to him and spent time with him since he becoming captain? And he said, no. So I thought maybe we should do something wherein players talk to Morgs and connect with him as they did with DK in the past.”

With that aim in mind, Nayar organised a normal gathering of the players and Morgan over tea near the beach, a calm, serene setting for a quiet, friendly conversation. Before proceeding, Morgan, with plenty of experience on how to gel a group of players from different backgrounds and cultures together, asked the content team behind the making of the documentary to not record the audio of their conversation. In hindsight, Morgan wouldn’t contest, it is in those moments where he truly took over the team, finding that ‘connect’ with the players around him.

“I have been involved in team meetings in different teams,” Morgan said. “When there are a lot of young people involved. And they can become very intimidated, either by senior players being around or a camera being around or a microphone. So, in order to get everybody to feel comfortable. I requested that it (the conversation) wasn’t filmed or taped.”

“The players loved it,” said Nayar. “To see that a captain, a foreign captain is coming and actually listening to them. It was outstanding. It proves why Morgs is such an outstanding leader and so loved by his teammates because he is an incredible human being, and it’s just special (to have him on board as captain”.

And that was that. Not just on a sheet of paper. In a true sense, Dinesh Karthik’s KKR was now Eoin Morgan’s KKR. The “seamless transition” was possible because of the sort of environment created over time within the KKR set-up by the franchise’s ownership group, the management and the senior players involved, something Morgan and Karthik both pointed out in the documentary.