Mumbai: Former Australian batsman Dean Jones lauded the addition of England skipper Eoin Morgan to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and said that he can assist the franchise captain Dinesh Karthik.
KKR has bolstered their lineup with the addition of Morgan, Australian pacer Pat Cummins, USA pacer Ali Khan, and Australian spinner Chris Green.
"Morgan is a phenomenal player; his numbers are brilliant. It's good to have him at KKR. KKR has one of the best kids of all time in this with Shubhman Gill an outstanding player and Morgan can hit fours and sixes to spin around the park. He has got the World Cup and understands big moment and having Eoin is massive and they needed that leadership to help Dinesh Karthik at the top because of the conflict between Karthik and Russell," while speaking on Star Sports show "Game Plan" Jones said.
Commenting on Brendon McCullum's coaching style, Jones feels that the attacking approach will not give them success in every match and they have to give 'disciplined freedom' to their players.
"He is going to be nervous. TKR has been amazing and unbeaten at CPL but most players coach the same way they play, and Brendon just goes after and smash every ball and he might coach this team in the same way and might work for them. But history shows, with Gautam Gambhir, he led the team that was structured and disciplined and everybody knew what their role is so we need to see how he goes, like just go and hit every ball, sometimes it works but most of the time it doesn't but when you are giving freedom you need to have discipline and you don't want freedom without discipline because it brings chaos," Jones said.
KKR finished fifth in 2019 IPL and now it would be looking to go all the way.
They will start their campaign against defending champions Mumbai Indians later in the day at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Kolkata has a poor head-to-head record against Mumbai. The two teams have played 25 matches against each other, out of which 19 have been won by Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai.
