IPL 2018: Dinesh Karthik defends sending Shubman Gill at No 7

The Kolkata Knight Riders lost their second game in a row to the Sunrisers Hyderabad yesterday. Kane Williamson put them into bat first after winning the toss. On a deck which was fairly good for batting, KKR failed to put their act together. After getting off to a decent start, the team completely lost its momentum after a rain interruption. The SRH bowlers hit the right areas and never allowed the Knight Riders to get a hold of the game.

Chasing a paltry target of 139, the Sunrisers got off to a fairly good start. However, they were pushed onto the backfoot after Sunil Narine struck twice in two overs. But, skipper Kane Williamson and all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan steadied the innings. Yusuf Pathan came in at No 7 and scored a quickfire 17 off 7 balls to provide SRH with their first ever win at the Eden Gardens.

Shubman Gill was sent down the order because of the dynamics of the team

KKR’s skipper Dinesh Karthik was put under a lot of scrutinies after the game. Dinesh made some tough and questionable decisions in this game. First of all, he didn’t open the innings with Sunil Narine who found some great success with the bat in recent times. Furthermore, 19-year-old Shubman Gill was sent way low down the order for his liking. Also, there were questions about his bowling and fielding changes.

Dinesh Karthik justified his decision of sending Shubman Gill down the order. He said that Gill was happy to bat at No 7. Moreover, he noted that it was important to understand the team dynamics. Karthik said that there were quite a few established batsmen in the middle-order. He also added that it was tough to accommodate Gill in there.

“Look, as a team we understand he is a top-order batsman. But you got to understand the dynamics of the team as well. With Robin (Uthappa), Nitish (Rana) and myself there, we thought we will send him in a middle-order role where he doesn’t need to go and build an innings. He can just go and express himself. That was the whole logic behind sending him (at No 7). Furthermore, it is going to be little hard at this stage to send him to bat higher up the order. He is happy to bat at this spot,” he stated as quoted by SportStar.