I wouldn’t be surprised if Eoin Morgan drops himself from playing XI in next game Rajat Bhatia

Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL and Twitter

The stage was set for match no. 45 in IPL 2021 on Friday as Kolkata Knight Riders locked horns with Punjab Kings in Dubai. After winning the toss, KL Rahul put KKR into bat and it was always going to be exciting to watch how both teams approach the game in this crucial encounter. Venkatesh Iyer impressed once again at the top and put the Men in Purple in a very strong position with the score reading 120/3 in 14.4 overs, when he got out.

KKR's captain Eoin Morgan walked out to bat and there was a possibility of going past the 180-run mark, which could have proven to be a match-winning total. However, just like the previous games, the middle-order failed to capitalize on the situation. Captain Morgan, who was looking quite unsettled, continued his horror run this season as he was dismissed by Mohammed Shami on 2 runs.

While all the players have chipped in here and there, the Englishman has probably been the only KKR player who has not had a single valuable contribution with the bat this season. In 12 matches, Morgan has managed to score only 109 runs at a disappointing average of 10.90, which has put his place in the playing XI under some scrutiny.

Morgan would go and tell the management to drop him: Bhatia

Former KKR cricketer Rajat Bhatia reflected on the Morgan situation in conversation with SportsTiger. He said, "When you become a captain, there is more responsibility on your shoulders. It is a concerning factor that Morgan is not scoring runs for KKR. It's not that he is getting set and then getting out. He is losing his wicket early in the innings, before even scoring 10 runs."

"I wouldn’t be surprised if Eoin Morgan drops himself from playing XI in next game. We have seen this many times that he (Morgan) is the kind of captain who would go and tell the team management to drop him since he is not able to score runs with the bat," added Rajat Bhatia in DafaNews presents SportsTiger Mid-Wicket LIVE show on Friday.

It will be interesting to see what the franchise and captain decide with regard to the team combination when KKR meet SRH for their next league game on Sunday.