Gavaskar was unhappy that Morgan sent in Rinku Singh to bat at No. 4 when the KKR captain should have come in to bolster the middle order.
Former Test batsman Sunil Gavaskar slammed Eoin Morgan's decision making after Kolkata Knight Riders lost a nail-biting match against Chennai Super Kings in Dubai on Thursday to spoil their chances of winning a berth in the IPL playoffs in UAE. (POINTS TABLE | SCHEDULE)
Ravindra Jadeja slammed two back-to-back sixes in the fifth and sixth deliveries of the final over bowled by Kamlesh Nagarkoti as Chennai Super Kings stormed to a six-wicket win. (HIGHLIGHTS)
Put into bat by MS Dhoni, KKR scored 172 for five wickets after opener Nitish Rana scored 87. The KKR innings never quite got going and although Morgan said the "score was enough", Gavaskar said the decision to send Rinku Singh at No. 4 was a bad move.
"Rinku Singh was playing his first match and to send him at No. 4 was wrong. Morgan should have shown more leadership skills. He should have batted at No. 4 and pushed the scoring rate. Probably that cost KKR the match," said Gavaskar.
Commentating on live TV after the KKR vs CSK match, Gavaskar said, "Even Dhoni came in to bat at No. 4 and even if he didn't score runs, at least the intent was clear."
Morgan replaced Dinesh Karthik as captain midway through IPL 2020 but the World-Cup winning captain has not made a significant contribution to KKR's fortunes.
Kumar Sangakkara, commentating with Gavaskar, also said Morgan's decision to bat after Rinku SIngh was an error.
Morgan later admitted that Nagarkoti didn't have enough runs to defend in the final over against Chennai Super Kings. Morgan scored 15 off 12 balls as shuffling the middle-order clearly didn't work for KKR on Thursday.