Eoin Morgan, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper said that the gap between the ODI series and the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 has provided him with the best opportunity to recover from his injury in time for Kolkata’s first game of the season.
Eoin Morgan had missed the final two ODIs of the series against India in Pune because of an injury sustained during the first ODI.
Eoin Morgan Feels Better And Spoke About Prasidh Krishna And Harbhajan Singh
The England skipper sustained a split webbing between his thumb and index finger in the first ODI and that required four stitches.
“Yeah, I feel a lot better than I did a week ago. The plan moving forward is to remove the stitches tomorrow and progress with my batting in the coming days and fielding on the back of that. Given the time frame I have available, it’s looking very good,” said Morgan during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
Prasidh Krishna had made his memorable ODI debut in the recently-concluded series against England. Now Eoin Morgan would be leading the Indian pacer in the upcoming IPL 2021.
Speaking about Prasidh making his debut for India, Morgan said: “After Prasidh’s debut, on the way back after the toss, I went and congratulated him.”
When asked about the inclusion of Harbhajan Singh in the squad, Morgan said: “I think adding Harbhajan to our squad has strengthened our spin department. If you look at our spin department, on paper it is one of the best in the tournament and that is factual. We have to play in Chennai and it can turn there, it can raise the eyebrows of our spinners there. If we do well in the tournament, our spinners would have bowled well.”
Harbhajan Singh, the veteran off-spinner will be donning Kolkata Knight Riders’ purple and gold jersey in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. After getting released by his previous franchise Chennai Super Kings, he was acquired by the Eoin Morgan-led side at the IPL 2021 Auction last month.
India and IPL veteran 40-year-old off-spinner Harbhajan Singh found a Rs 2 crore bid from Kolkata Knight Riders in the second round. In a disappointing start to his chances at the auction, Harbhajan Singh found no takers for Rs 2 crore cap in the initial round of the auction.
Eoin Morgan Welcomes Nathan Leamon As KKR’s Strategic Consultant
Earlier, this year KKR had hired England’s white-ball analyst Nathan Leamon as its strategic consultant ahead of the upcoming IPL.
Talking about Nathan, Morgan said: I have worked with Nathan in the England cricket team in 2010, both as a player and as a captain. In the new age of sport where information is freely available, the biggest thing we can do is to figure out how to use that information. Having different information available to help different players, in turn, to help the team is obviously something we have looked into it.”
“If you see the role of analysts in different sports across the world, it plays such a big part. For me, Nathan coming on board has added to a strong area and we value that to a huge amount,” he added.
When asked whether KKR will be flexible with their batting outfit this year as well, Morgan said: “We are all due to get together quite soon towards the end of the week in which we will discuss our plans and thoughts and actually talk about our strengths as a squad and team.”
“The IPL is the biggest tournament in the world. A competitive campaign or successful campaign is the battle with the injuries or illness along the way. Whether you like it or not, it does happen throughout a season. Planning needs to be put across to strengthen your team across all areas. We did that in this auction and we are hoping to best position ourselves to have a versatile team when it comes to selection,” he added.
KKR bought Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Shakib Al Hasan, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer, and Pawan Negi in IPL 2021 auctions held at Chennai. Dinesh Karthik relinquished captaincy midway in IPL 2020 and handed it over to Eoin Morgan.
As per batting is concerned, Shubman Gill managed 440 runs in 14 games while Eoin Morgan managed 418 runs in as many games. Andre Russell flopped in IPL 2020 despite his credentials and big-hitting ability scoring 117 runs with injuries playing a part. But he was retained as he scored 510 runs in IPL 2019 averaging 56.66 at a strike rate of 204.81 which is in stark contrast to IPL 2020 at UAE.
IPL will begin on April 9 with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians locking horns in the tournament opener. KKR will play their first game on April 11 against SunRisers Hyderabad. (ANI)
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