Dinesh Karthik reveals reason behind him stepping down as Kolkata Knight Riders skipper

Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Dinesh Karthik has revealed that him stepping down from the captaincy of the franchise was his call and no one forced him to take it. Karthik was appointed the captain of the franchise when they bought him for INR 7.5 crore in 2018 and their ex-skipper Gautam Gambhir returned to his previous franchise Delhi Daredevils.

However, after captaining the side in 37 games spanning over two and a half seasons, Karthik stepped down from the position and England national team's captain took over from him.

During a conversation with Gaurav Kapur on his podcast '22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapur', Karthik revealed that according to him he was the problem and didn't wish to continue as the leader of the side. "We were aware of it. I think a lot of credit should be given to KKR because they handled it very well. They understood my situation. I was the problem, nobody else. From the moment, I’m not very sure, then they’re like ‘fine, there’s Morgan’. He (Morgan) actually was very reluctant," he said.

“For him, he’s captaining England, such a high-pressure thing. He wants to come and play the IPL and enjoy it. And he was thoroughly enjoying it up to the point. He was vice-captain so basically, it’s about helping me.

"But when I said this, he said ‘no, no’. And we were high on the table too; we had played some seven games and won four. We were No. 4 or 3 on the table. He said ‘are you crazy? Why would you do this? I don’t understand what you’re trying to do," the wicket-keeper batsman added.

KKR reached the playoffs under Karthik in 2018 and narrowly missed out on the top 4 spot in the 2019 edition of the IPL on Net Run Rate (NRR). When he gave up captaincy midway last year, KKR had won four out of seven games they had played till then.

"Personally, what was happening and then it was something that was more about my personal issues that happened rather than it being cricket or the franchise or anything like that. So when the personal issue happened, that was the main reason and then he said, ‘Ok, I’ll do it.’ And it was handled very well by KKR… Venky Mysore, Shahrukh," Karthik further said.