India coach Rahul Dravid hints at Hardik Pandya-Dinesh Karthik ‘enforcer’ pairing for T20 World Cup

Karthik’s inclusion into the T20 World Cup side may come at the cost of Rishabh Pant, who had an underwhelming series vs South Africa

Rahul Dravid. Pic/PTI

Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya are in a rich vein of form. Having lit up the IPL, the duo have come back into the Indian side looking better than ever before. In the 4th T20I, Karthik and Pandya teamed up to take down the South Africa bowlers, scoring 55 and 46 respectively, giving a glimpse of the power packed middle-order India could play in the T20 World Cup.

If India coach Rahul Dravid‘s post match comments are to be believed, Karthik, who wasn’t even in India‘s T20 plans prior to the IPL, could be the man to partner Pandya as an ‘enforcer.’

According to IANS, Dravid said, “He (Karthik) is picked for a very specific skill and he was picked for that based on what he has been doing particularly well over the last two or three years.”

“It almost came together perfectly for us in that game at Rajkot when we needed that big performance in the last five overs to be able to make a par score.

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“He (Karthik) and Hardik (Pandya) batted beautifully for us and both of them are our enforcers at the end and guys that can capitalise on the last five or six overs as well as anyone in the world. It was really nice to see Karthik come off and do what he has been picked to do and it certainly opens up a lot more options for us going forward. Innings like that (in Rajkot) means he is certainly knocking very hard.”

Karthik’s inclusion into the T20 World Cup side may come at the cost of Rishabh Pant, who had an underwhelming series vs South Africa.

However, With the T20 World Cup still more than three months away, the Indian selectors have plenty of time to figure out what combination of players would be the best to bring home the T20 World Cup.

(With inputs from IANS)