Legendary India National Cricket Team batter Sunil Gavaskar expressed his surprise at India’s decision to drop veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik from the playing XI in the high-voltage Asia Cup 2022 Super 4 encounter against Babar Azam’s Pakistan.
Dinesh Karthik was surprisingly dropped from Team India’s playing XI for the clash against Pakistan on Sunday, September 4, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
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The 37-year-old was preferred over Rishabh Pant in the group stage game against Pakistan, where he got the opportunity to play just one ball.
The decision to drop Karthik might have been made due to the absence of a left-handed batter in the playing XI. Notably, star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who batted at No.4 for India in the group stage game against Pakistan, got ruled out of the tournament due to a knee injury. Deepak Hooda had replaced Jadeja in the playing XI and there was only one spot left in the team, which was occupied by wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.
Meanwhile, batting legend Gavaskar said it was hard to understand India’s decision to drop Karthik.
“Also dropping Dinesh Karthik, that was something that was hard to understand. Here, you have already identified him as a finisher and in this big match, you don’t have him on your team. So that was a bit of a surprise,” Gavaskar told India Today after India’s 5-wicket loss to Pakistan.
He was middling all the shots apart from one from the leg-spinner – Sunil Gavaskar on Virat Kohli
Gavaskar further talked about Kohli and said that the modern-day batting great batted brilliantly against Pakistan and mentioned that the 33-year-old was middling most of the shots he played.
“We certainly have, he was middling the ball from the first ball he faced. There were a couple of terrific shots, the pull shot was the best of them all and even the flick for six to get to his fifty, there were some excellent shots. Most importantly, he was middling all the shots apart from one from the leg-spinner. Otherwise, everything was from the middle of the bat.”
“That’s what gives batter confidence. It’s not the number of runs that you score, how you batted, he has batted quite superbly in this game against Pakistan. That augurs really well for India in the matches to come, Gavaskar added.
Former India National Cricket Team skipper Kohli, who has found his mojo back after a prolonged lean patch, is currently the highest run-getter in the Asia Cup 2022 with 154 runs under his belt at an average of 77 and a strike rate of 126.22.
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