Krishnamachari Srikkanth, former India captain expressed his doubt over the selection of Dinesh Karthik in his India XI for the tournament moments after the Asia Cup 2022 squad was announced, while making a massive claim, but ex-India wicketkeeper Kiran More countered with an epic reply.
BCCI on Sunday announced India’s 15-member squad for the impending Asia Cup. While the tournament will mark the return of former captain Virat Kohli and star batter KL Rahul, who had incurred an injury, fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will be missing out on the squad owing to an injury concern.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth: Dinesh Karthik Will Probably Be A Reserve Batsman
At 37 years of age, Dinesh Karthik has made a stupendous return to the Indian side. From shifting to commentary a year ago after falling out of reckoning from India’s white-ball side, Dinesh Karthik staged a superb comeback to the Indian side as a finisher.
He proved his worth in the IPL 2022 scoring over a strike rate of about 200 in the slog overs and emulated the same for India as well, his most recent exploit being a fiery 41 in the Windies T20I series opener for which he even won the Player of the Match award.
However, Krishnamachari Srikkanth after the selection of India’s Asia Cup squad picked his playing XI for the tournament and opined that Dinesh Karthik might only appear as a “reserve batter”. He in fact expressed doubt over his appearance in any of the matches for India in the Asia Cup.
After naming the first seven player of his India XI – Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja – Krishnamachari Srikkanth said, “No.8 would have been Shami. I had picked Shami for my team. He’s not there. So No. 8 would be Chahal. Medium pacers have to be Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh.”
“Now I feel they will bring in Deepak Hooda as an extra floater. So between 7 and 8, it could be Jadeja or Hooda. Looks like it. That’s the best combination. Because if you pick three spinners then you will get into a problem. 3 pacers, and three spinners – that would be a bit too much. Dinesh Karthik will probably be a reserve batsman. I don’t know whether he will be in the XI. I have my doubts there.”
Dinesh Karthik took IPL 2022 by storm with his incredible power-hitting skills in the slog overs while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore- RCB. He scored 330 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 183.33 with one half-century and an average of 55.
Dinesh Karthik made his India debut in 2004 and went on to play India’s first-ever T20I match. If all goes well, he will play the ICC T20I World Cup 2022 at the ripe age of 37.
Kiran More Will Include Dinesh Karthik In Indian XI Instead Of Deepak Hooda Disagreeing with Krishnamachari Srikkanth
Kiran More, who was part of the panel, however, disagreed with Krishnamachari Srikkanth and opined that if Dinesh Karthik is not picked in the XI he would rather not even be part of the team itself. Kiran More rather stressed the importance of picking Dinesh Karthik despite India having a wicketkeeper in Rishabh Pant.
“In my XI I have Dinesh Karthik. If he sits out then I wouldn’t have taken him. I will play him. You have given him the finisher’s role and he has played well and has won matches for India. Pant has scored runs in IPL but not elsewhere. He has struggled a bit. But he is a superb player. I wouldn’t go with Hooda. I will play Karthik, then Hardik and Jadeja,” he said.
The Asia Cup tournament will begin from August 27 onwards in the UAE.