India head coach Rahul Dravid made no hesitation in admitting that Dinesh Karthik has made a good case for himself going into the T20 World Cup and the 37-year-old opened up a lot of options for the team management ahead of the big-ticket event. (Cricket News)
Karthik, who made his T20 debut for India in 2006, hasn’t been consistent with his national team selection but has reinvented himself in the last couple of years to make heads turn for a lot of people at the top.
After a brilliant IPL 2022 for Royal Challengers Bangalore where he scored 330 runs from 16 games, Karthik once again proved why he rated so highly as one of the best finishers at the moment, with a 27-ball 55 against South Africa in the fourth T20 in Rajkot.
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“It was really nice to see Karthik come off and do what he has been picked to do. That was good and it opens up a lot more options for us, going forward,” Dravid said after the five-match between India and South Africa ended in a 2-2 draw. The last game on Sunday was abandoned due to rain.
“He was picked for what he has been doing exceptionally well for the last two or three years (in IPL) and kind of indicated in the sense that it almost came together in the game at Rajkot,” added the former captain.
For Dravid, to be a part of the T20 World Cup set-up, it won’t be enough to just the ‘knock the door’. Anyone who wants to stake a claim in that squad of 15 will need to ‘bang it down’ and Dravid feels Karthik is banging the door hard after his Rajkot heroics.
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“I was telling guys that you have to start banging the door down and not just knocking the door down and innings like that (Rajkot fifty) means he is knocking very hard,” said Dravid. After the Rajkot T20, Hardik Pandya called Karthik an inspiration to many youngsters.
For Dravid, Karthik and Hardik Pandya are the two ‘enforcers’ in the death overs. “We needed that big performance in last five overs to make a par score and he and Hardik batted beautifully. Both are enforcers for us at the end,” said Dravid, when asked about what role the team management has in mind for Karthik.
Dravid doesn't want to put a timeline but by the end of the England T20s, he wants to have a fair idea about the 18 to 20-odd players he would be looking at ahead of T20 World Cup in Australia. India and England will clash in six white-ball games (July 7-17) after one-off Test.
“As you come closer and closer to the event, you want to firm up your final squad or if not, obviously you want to have some contingencies in the kind of world we live in today. Obviously, you want to take only 15 to the WC but (need to identify) top 18 to 20 players,” added Dravid.
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“Obviously, there could be odd changes due to injury and things that are beyond your control, but we are going to start looking to firm up that squad as quickly as possible. Whether that will happen in next series (Ireland) or series after that (England) is hard to tell but we are certainly looking to do that as quickly as possible,” he revealed.
Dravid also reckons that the one-off ‘fifth Test’ against the hosts England will be a different proposition from last year when the team under Virat Kohli led 2-1 before COVID-19 cases in India camp forced the cancellation of the final game.
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“England are playing well at the moment and it is going to be a bit different from last year when England were probably a little bit on backfoot. They have played some good games and we have a pretty good side as well,” Dravid said, referring to Ben Stokes' side's series win against New Zealand.
“Loved playing Test cricket, love watching it and love coaching in Test cricket and so you know, looking forward to it,” he concluded.
