India to play West Indies in 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is beginning from February 6th.
The veteran Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik has made a bold statement about Ravi Bishnoi and Yuzvendra Chahal ahead of the West Indies series, saying Bishnoi will challenge Chahal for a spot in Team India’s ODI line-up.
Before the 2019 World Cup, Chahal had picked up 78 wickets in 53 ODIs for India at 24.19, but after the mega event, the wrist spinner’s performance took a nosedive, as he is now averaging a dismal 35.64 while picking up 14 wickets in 9 ODI matches.
Even in the recent ODI series against South Africa, Chahal managed only two wickets for 147 runs in three ODIs.
Reacting to Chahal’s struggles ahead of the 3-match ODI series against the West Indies, Karthik said that Chahal has been lucky to get the opportunity with Team India, considering the wrist-spin challenges coming through the ranks, especially following the emergence of the leg-spin options in Rahul Chahar and Ravi Bishnoi.
Karthik feels Chahal might face a stiff challenge from Bishnoi in the upcoming West Indies series.
Karthik told Cricbuzz: “At this point of time, outside of Chahal, if you got to pick a wrist-spinner, then there is Rahul Chahar and Ravi Bishnoi. And looking at the way things have panned out, I do feel Bishnoi is ahead at the moment right now.
But we need to see how badly is Chahal bowling. His stats say that he hasn't had the best of years. But in many ways, he has been lucky because there is nobody pushing him for a place in the squad.”
The 36-year-old further explained, “So you have to understand that these things happen due to lack of domestic cricket. We are only looking at IPL. There is nothing else to look at in terms of new bowlers, fast bowlers are there in plenty, but when it comes to wrist spinners, there are hardly any.
And that will remain an issue due to the lack of domestic cricket because you need people with a lot of wickets, especially wrist spinners, and they haven't played the longer format. They play only 4-5 games of Vijay Hazare and that's all you get as a sample to choose from.”
He concluded, “That is why in the last two years you haven't seen anybody come out from the ranks. And the main reason is of course Covid which has created havoc for many domestic cricketers. While a lot of the international cricketers want a break, the domestic cricketers want a game right now.”