“Was Not Fully Convinced With Dinesh Karthik’s…”: Zaheer Khan on Indian Wicketkeeper’s Performance

Team India beat Zimbabwe in their last Super 12 Group 2 clash of the ongoing T20 World Cup, at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. The Rohit Sharma-led side automatically qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament, after Netherlands defeated South Africa by 13 runs. The win helped India finish on top of Group 2. For the first four matches in the ongoing tournament, Team India gave chance to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik in place of Rishabh Pant. Kathik though failed to deliver any strong performance. But in the clash against Zimbabwe, Rishabh Pant was given a chance in the playing XI and Karthik had to sit out.

Speaking about the change India made in their playing XI for the match, former India paceman Zaheer Khan said that Karthik has not been able to make the most of the opportunities that have come his way in the tournament.

“I was not fully convinced with Dinesh Karthik’s mood. The team management believed in that but in this tournament, you are not able to see what you are getting out of him. Dinesh Karthik did get some opportunities where he could have made impact and if the kind of pressure with which he is walking into bat, which is the expectation of a finisher, he did get those opportunities against South Africa but he could not capitalize on that. So, you got to judge someone on basis of that and if Rishabh Pant comes to the party and shows that he is ready, then you should just make that change because that one change might go a long way,” Zaheer said in a video posted on Cricbuzz.

In the four matches, Karthik could only get scores of 1, 0, 6, and 7.

Promoted

In the match, India posted a total of 186/5 in 20 overs, after opting to bat first against Zimbabwe. Suryakumar Yadav was the star for Team India as he smashed a 61 runs off 25 balls. Apart from him, KL Rahul scored 51 runs off 35 balls.

Zimbabwe were never in the chase and were eventually bowled for 115.