IPL 2021: "I am still not able to understand Eoin Morgan's captaincy" - Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra has criticized Eoin Morgan for some of his captaincy decisions during the Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) IPL 2021 encounter against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

The Kolkata Knight Riders suffered an 18-run defeat against the three-time IPL champions. This was the Eoin Morgan-led side's third consecutive loss in the tournament, and left them placed sixth in the standings with just two points to their name.

While reflecting on KKR's loss in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra questioned Eoin Morgan's decision to give Varun Chakravarthy the new ball on a Wankhede track that has more assistance for the seamers.

"I am still not able to understand Eoin Morgan's captaincy because this is the only team which has bowled spin in the powerplay overs on this pitch. Everyone comes here and bowls the fast bowlers and gets wickets. Deepak Chahar took wickets in the second innings, so you should bowl the fast bowlers in the first innings at least," said Chopra.

The former KKR player pointed out that Eoin Morgan giving the third over to Sunil Narine was another surprising decision.

"He started with Varun Chakravarthy and after that we also saw Sunil Narine in the powerplay. If you keep bowling spin in the powerplay, it is an out of the box thinking but I am not able to understand it," added Chopra.

Giving Captaincy to Eoin Morgan was Worst Ever Decision by KKR Franchise in history of IPL.#IPL2021 #KKRvsCSK

— Harsh Vardhan Chaurasia (@TheCrickTweets) April 21, 2021

Eoin Morgan might have been tempted to bowl the spinners in the powerplay after seeing the success they enjoyed on a totally different surface at Chepauk, which was the venue KKR played their first three matches at.

It is also debatable if operating solely with the seamers would have yielded KKR the desired results, considering that Pat Cummins and Prasidh Krishna conceded 32 runs in the three overs they bowled in the powerplay.

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Aakash Chopra feels Eoin Morgan will be asked some tough questions

Eoin Morgan failed to fire with the bat as well [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra feels Eoin Morgan might be posed some difficult questions by the KKR management, since he has not delivered with the bat and has been found wanting in the captaincy department as well.

"This is the third consecutive loss for Kolkata after starting with a win. I am pretty sure they are going to pose some tough questions to captain Morgan because runs are not flowing from his bat and the changes he is making are not cutting it for me," signed off Chopra.

Here KKR need to question the leadership of Eoin Morgan. He is neither contributing with his bat nor his captaincy is that much impressive. He should be held responsible for letting team down. #CSKvsKKR

— GAURAVᴹᴵ (@ThisIsGaurav_) April 21, 2021

Eoin Morgan drew a lot of flak in KKR's encounter against RCB as well. He made the inexplicable decision to remove Varun Chakravarthy from the attack, although the mystery spinner had taken two wickets in his first over and the dangerous Glenn Maxwell had arrived at the crease.