Kolkata: Dinesh Karthik’s leadership skills have come under scanner after Kolkata Knight Riders’ five back-to-back defeats in the ongoing IPL but coach Jacques Kallis said that there has been no discussions on removing the under-fire captain.
“No. We haven’t discussed it, nor it been brought up. So now there’s been no talk about that,” Kallis said when asked about a possibility of a shake up like Rajasthan Royals where Ajinkya Rahane was removed for non-performance. “Hopefully, he (Karthik) can get in and get us some big runs. That will certainly mean a lot to the team and as much as he wants to do it,” the South African great said of his skipper, who averages a dismal 16.71 from nine innings this season. However it is learnt that the team’s principal owner Shah Rukh Khan had called the top players to Mumbai. The Bollywood superstar sounded emotional in a tweet following their loss to Royal Challengers Banglaore at Eden Gardens on April 19. “I feel it’s only fair for KKR to do something in return for @Russell12A, like winning a few before the season ends,” Shah Rukh had tweeted. Asked whether the team met SRK in Mumbai, Kallis said: “I have not chatted to him since the guys have been in Mumbai. In fact, I think DK went home for a day as well. So we will catch up tomorrow and have a debrief and plan away going forward again for the next game. We all want to perform a little bit better. Yeah, I think everyone’s in that space” He added. (PTI)
