Brendon McCullum wants more leaders in the Kolkata Knight Riders dugout and said that he wanted Shubman Gill to be part of the leadership core. One of the most talked-about topics from the last year 2019 IPL was the decision making in the Kolkata Knight Riders camp.
West Indies’ reliable all-rounder and an important member of KKR, Andre Russell was unhappy with captain Dinesh Karthik and the leadership group for making some bad decisions.
In the IPL this year, KKR will again be captained by Dinesh Karthik and England’s World Cup-winning skipper Eoin Morgan will be the vice-captain. KKR were the champions in 2012 and 2014 when they were led by Gautam Gambhir.
But when Dinesh Karthik was appointed captain in 2018 they could not get beyond playoffs and in 2019 they finished 5th out of 8 teams participating in IPL.
Brendon McCullum Says Eoin Morgan Perfect Foil For Dinesh Karthik
Eoin Morgan is the England limited-overs white-ball captain and also played for Ireland. He was in KKR squad from 2011 to 2013 but was bought by KKR to play IPL 2020.
He won the 2019 World Cup for England and according to KKR ex-captain and former New Zealand captain head coach Brendon Mccullum will be a perfect foil for Dinesh Karthik, the captain.
“I think he’s the perfect foil for DK as a vice captain. It’s a match made in heaven in regards to an IPL franchise. You’ve got that overseas experience and leadership and you’ve got the local leader. I think it’s a really nice mix,” McCullum said on Knights Unplugged.
The KKR will feature Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi and a few others as Indians and Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton, Chris Green and a few others as the foreigners.
Brendon McCullum Picks Shubman Gill As Upcoming Leader
The former KKR star picked out Shubman Gill, who played an integral part in the batting last season. Gill scored 296 runs from 14 games. Shubman Gill has played for KKR in 2018 and 2019 where he scored about 500 runs in 25 innings at a decent average of 33.26.
“What a talent, and what a good guy as well. He is going to be a part of our leadership group this year as well, at least in some capacity. Even though he is young, I am a big believer that it’s not necessarily true that you having played for a long time makes you a good leader,” he maintained.
“It’s about you exhibiting the behaviours of a leader. It’s always good to have a cross-section of leadership within your group. To us, Shubman is one of those guys we would look to lean on for some leadership throughout this season,” he said.
The IPL is slated to begin on September 19 in UAE after being postponed from March 29 due to covid-19 pandemic.