Dinesh Karthik seen middling the ball ahead of Bangalore T20I against Australia

Dinesh Karthik has seen the ups and downs of cricket in last one year. While he has hit a six in the final ball of a T20I against Bangladesh to win a trophy for India last year, he came under criticism for not taking a single at a crunch moment in a game against New Zealand recently. The man could not manage more than one in the first T20I against Australia in Visakhapatnam on Sunday but looked in good touch ahead of the second and final game in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

India were let down by their batting in the first game as they could manage just 126 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs, thanks to some spirited bowling by the visitors. India’s bowlers tried well to defend the modest total but could not eventually stop the game from slipping out in the final delivery of the match and the Aussies won by 3 wickets. Besides Karthik, Rishabh Pant also played in the game and failed as well (3 off 5).

Karthik was seen connecting the ball well at the nets ahead of the do-or-die clash and it was a strong hint that the 33-year-old is set to feature in the playing XI. The wicket-keeper-batsman who has been playing as a specialist batsman of late has not been picked for India’s five-ODI series that follows the T20Is. Pant was preferred over him which made any experts believe that it ended the hope of Karthik playing in the ICC World Cup due to start in May.

Here is the video of Karthik practising

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Guess the number of times @dk00019 went on his knees to whack the ball 💥💥💢 #TeamIndia #INDvAUS @paytm

A post shared by Team India (@indiancricketteam) on Feb 26, 2019 at 11:32pm PST

Karthik will next captain Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL

Karthik will, however, be busy with the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 beginning in less than a month’s time. He is the captain of KKR since the last edition when he replaced Gautam Gambhir and did well to lead the side to the playoffs where it lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second qualifier.

Coming back to the T20I series, it is after some time that the Men in Blue lost two consecutive T20Is (they lost the last of the three-match series in New Zealand by 4 runs) and also at home in the shortest format. Playing in their final international assignment ahead of the WC, Virat Kohli’s men will look to ensure that the twin series don’t go waste and their preparations for the mega event do not get disrupted.

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