Former India opener Aakash Chopra was baffled at the strategies adopted by Kolkata Knight Riders against Delhi Capitals in an IPL 2020 match in Sharjah.
Chopra questioned captain Dinesh Karthik and the KKR team management’s logic of sending England captain Eoin Morgan as low as No.6 when they were chasing 229 for victory.
“It is beyond my understanding why KKR is not giving enough batting to Eoin Morgan. Their batting order is not working at this point of time. Morgan is a runaway match-winner. If you see his record from 2019, he is batting at a strike rate of 170. And in this team also, he has been stunning in the last match as well as this match,” Chopra said in his Youtube channel after KKR fell short by 18 runs despite some late blitz from Morgan, who scored 44 off 18 balls with five sixes.
Chopra, who is also a former KKR player, said KKR should have chased down the target as they played an extra batsman in Rahul Tripathi in place of Kuldeep Yadav.
“KKR could have chased down the 229-run target. You played an extra batsman in Rahul Tripathi instead of Kuldeep Yadav. But if you have played him, you should have opened with him. You are opening with Narine and that experiment is not working,” he added.
Chopra questioned the decision to send Tripathi at No.8 instead of opening with him. The former opener said Tripathi can be a good option to open with Shubam Gill going ahead in the tournament.
“So, there was a problem with the batting order. Nitish Rana played well. Shubman Gill, till the time he was in the middle, played well.”
