Saba Karim felt that it's time to develop and give game time to young players.
For more than a decade, former India cricketer MS Dhoni performed the incredibly challenging role of a finisher with remarkable consistency. But since his retirement in 2019, the Indian team management has been looking for someone who can fill Dhoni’s shoes.
Hardik Pandya and veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik have been doing an outstanding job as finishers in the T20I format for India lately.
However, former Indian cricketer Saba Karim believes that the management should develop new and young cricketers as Karthik is in the twilight of his career at 37.
Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan were mentioned by Saba as potential future finishers on the Sports18 show "Sports Over The Top".
“I think the time has come now to develop such young cricketers. Because you see, in the IPL most of the teams prefer to have an overseas batsman at that position. So, you can have David Miller you have Tim David you have Rovman Powell which means that still the young talent who are coming through from the Indian domestic circuit, they’re still not equipped enough to handle the pressure and to deliver on a consistent basis,” he said.
“Both the names that you’ve taken Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia, they’re young. They do have the skill and they need to be far more consistent. But to do that, we need to put some more hours behind them so that they’re able to come up to that level of international quality," he added.
The Men in Blue will take on Australia in the 2nd T20I of the 3-match series in Nagpur on Friday (September 23).
(NEWS18 INPUTS)