Dinesh Karthik has been the saviour with the bat for Royal Challengers Bangalore on several occasions this season, playing the finisher’s role with elan
Dinesh Karthik has been the saviour with the bat for Royal Challengers Bangalore on several occasions this season, playing the finisher’s role with elan. During one of the interviews this season Karthik expressed his keen desire to represent the Indian team in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia as he wants the team to win an ICC tournament for the first time in 9 years and contribute towards it.
Karthik has also dabbled in commentary in the past and several ex-players who are commentating in IPL 2022 have been stunned by the veteran wicket-keeper batter’s performance this season. Former India captain and batting great Sunil Gavaskar shared a lot of time with Karthik in the commentary box last year and he said that the RCB batter should be considered for selection for the T20 World Cup just based on his batting form.
“We did commentary together during the World Test Championship final in England last year and before that we spent a lot of time together when we were in quarantine. I know from then how determined he has been about playing in the T20 World Cups of 2021 and 2022. He wasn’t selected for last year’s World Cup but the way he has performed in IPL 2022, if I were a selector then I would definitely pick him for the upcoming T20 World Cup,” Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.
“Form is important. They say form is temporary and class is permanent and if a classy player is in form, then you must pick him. The way he is batting currently he should be considered and included as a pure batter and wicket-keeping should be an added option,” he added.
Karthik has been in an out of the Indian team across formats throughout his career, and has never managed to cement his place in the Indian cricket team. But the player is in red hot form at the fag end of his career and Gavaskar is of the opinion that his age should not be looked at while considering him for the T20 World Cup.
“Don’t think about his age. He keeps for 20 overs and then bats and that too in hot conditions. He should be considered based on his form. The other two keeping options are KL Rahul, who is in great form, and Rishabh Pant, whose form is a bit up and down but there are no questions about his selection because he is a certainty.
“It is not written anywhere that you cannot select three keeping options. A keeper can also be an all-rounder so you can take him (Karthik) as an all-rounder,” Gavaskar said.