With the India 15-member squad that will fly to Australia for the T20 World Cup 2022 announced, the focus will be on finding the ideal playing XI ahead of the tournament.
The Indian team will have three T20Is against Australia and three T20Is against South Africa to pick their best XI and stick to it for the ICC event. India will also play two warmup games in Australia to prepare for the tournament in which they will face off against Pakistan in their opening match on Oct 23 in MCG.
One of the most difficult tasks ahead for Rohit Sharma and the team management will be to pick a wicketkeeper-batter between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik.
Pant has not been consistent in scoring runs in T20Is off late which has put his place in the starting XI in jeopardy. Karthik, on the other hand, has been in extraordinary touch in and since IPL 2022, however, he had played exclusively as a finisher.
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir opined on this conundrum and explained that if Karthik and Pant played together in the starting XI, The sixth bowling option would not be available for the Indian team.
“You can't do that. If you do that, you will miss out on a sixth bowler and you will not go into the World Cup with five bowlers. You need to have a backup. Unless you drop someone like Suryakumar Yadav, or KL Rahul has a bad tournament. you can push Rishabh Pant to open the batting. Otherwise, I don't see both of these players in the middle-order,” he said on Star Sports in a virtual press conference.
Pant should be given preference over Karthik, said Gambhir and reasoned that the southpaw is a proven match-winner and an impact player.
“To start with, Rishabh Pant. Because I have said it in the past as well, you don't pick a T20 player only to play 10-12 balls. There is no guarantee that he is going to win you games. And Dinesh Karthik, unfortunately, has shown no interest in batting in the top-5. Your wicketkeeper has to be able to bat in the top-5 and Rishabh Pant has that quality to bat at any number for that matter,” he added.
The former cricketer made a case for the 24-year-old saying that the youngster can win matches for his team.
“I will definitely have Rishabh Pant in my batting order. I don't believe in the notion that you need a left-hander in the middle order. That's not the criteria, especially in a side like India. The criteria should be the ability to win a game, and Rishabh Pant has that. So yeah, Pant to start with at no.5, Hardik Pandya at 6, Axar at 7 and see if you want to Ashwin at 8, followed by three seamers," he concluded.
(STAR SPORTS INPUTS)
