India keeper-batter Rishabh Pant took a funny dig at fellow keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik, who was given an opportunity to bowl for the first time in international cricket as India confirmed victory over Afghanistan in their Asia Cup 2022 match on September 8 in Dubai.
With more than 100 runs needed in the last over, stand-in captain KL Rahul tossed the ball to Dinesh Karthik, who hadn’t bowled in his 170-match international career. He was smashed for 18 runs in the over including back-to-back sixes by Ibrahim Zadran who completed his half-century as well.
After the penultimate ball, where Zadran lofted the flighted delivery over extra cover for two runs, Pant poked fun at Karthik, which was caught on stump mic, saying, "DK bhai, sab control mein hai?".
Here is the video:
Karthik has so far played 26 Tests, 94 ODIs, and 50 T20Is for India, scoring 1025, 1752, and 592 runs respectively. He has 57 catches and 6 stumpings in Tests, 64 catches and 7 stumpings in ODIs, and 23 catches and 7 stumpings in T20Is.
Though his first time bowling in international cricket didn’t result in him picking a wicket, but Karthik the finisher could still be in the running for a T20 World Cup berth.
Here are a few videos of him bowling against Afghanistan:
India eventually won by 101 runs as they ended their rather forgettable Asia Cup 2022 campaign with a much-needed victory. India had progressed into the super 4s stage with impressive wins over Pakistan and Hong Kong. But were then stunned by back-to-back losses to Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
They were eliminated from the race to the final, when Babar Azam and co. defeated Afghanistan on September 7 in Sharjah.
