Dinesh Karthik – who regain a name and made a comeback in international cricket with his strong performances in the IPL 2022 for Royal Challengers Bangalore now gets in discussion for the position he needs to be used if he is drafted into the Indian squad.
Need to pick between Dinesh Karthik or Rishabh Pant
Former India selector Saba Karim has said that the selectors need to pick between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik and once one player is decided, it would be easier to slot in Suryakumar Yadav at No.4.
“Yes, you better need to sort it out as soon as possible. But you know what, to fix the No. 4 slot or the number four position for specific player, we need to get the combination and balance of the side correct.
When I say this I mean they need to pick between Dinesh Kartik or Rishabh Pant. Once you decide on either of these player, it’ll get easy to sort in Suryakumar Yadav at number four,” said Saba Karim on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show ‘SPORTS OVER THE TOP’.
Saba Karim also feels that India might be better served to go with five bowlers and all-rounder Hardik Pandya as their sixth option.
“I feel that to get the balance right, India has done well with five bowlers plus Hardik Pandya as a 6 bowling options.
So would you like to break that kind of a combination and get in another bat at number 7 that is Dinesh Karthik at number 7? That means that you go in with Hardik Pandya the fifth bowler who is expected to bowl 4 overs, so that is another big call from the Indian team management,” said Karim.
Hardik Pandya who suffered a lot of ups and downs in his career life made a remarkable comeback in IPL 2022 by leading one of the 2 new IPL teams – Gujarat Titans to lift their maiden IPL trophy.
Following his successful captaincy in IPL, Hardik led India in Ireland series and eventually went on to win the series for India. Hardik then played a crucial role in India’s victory over England in the limited-overs format.
To reduce the workload, Hardik has been rested for the Zimbabwe tour scheduled to kickstart on August 18.
“So then if so that that may pose some issues for the Indian team management. Whatever I have seen from Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, I think he prefers to have five regular bowlers plus Hardik Pandya as their six bowling option. If that is the case then you need to decide between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik,” he added.
In the West Indies series, Dinesh Karthik scored 66 runs in five matches while Pant returned with 115 runs in four games.
