I would've preferred Rishabh Pant over Dinesh Karthik: Deep Dasgupta

The former Indian cricketer Deep Dasgupta believes that Indian management should have started with Rishabh Pant ahead of Dinesh Karthik for the first 2022 Asia Cup clash against Pakistan on Sunday. Asian giants lock horns in the second match of the mega tournament in the UAE in a heat-raising clash. With one place available only in the top seven, it was clear that either Pant or Karthik would get a chance in the playing XI and the Indian management preferred the latter much to everyone’s surprise.

Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are set to open the innings for India with Virat Kohli taking his regular number three position. The in-form batter Suryakumar Yadav is likely to play in the number four position but it’s not easy to predict the middle-order and lower batting order for the first clash.

During his discussion with BatBricks7’s Run Ki Runneeti show on CricTracker, he was asked about who he would’ve preferred in the playing eleven for the Pakistan clash. Deep answered that India can utilize Pant in any position, including in the top order, and that will benefit team India. He also believed that Karthik only offers a finishing touch that Hardik and Ravindra Jadeja can also offer and they are doing it even in the former’s absence.

Rishabh Pant had a brilliant T20I series against West Indies

The 37-year-old batter struggled for the big knocks on the West Indies tour where he scored 66 runs in five matches at a strike of 132.00. On the other side, Rishabh was excellent against West Indies with 115 runs in just four matches at an average of 38.33 and a strike rate of 141.97. But the youngster has very poor numbers in the overall T20I format and has failed to make a similar impact that he has in Test and ODI cricket.

The star Indian Test-specialist batter Cheteshwar Pujara also backed the youngster to get selected ahead of Karthik but believes that it will be a big headache for the management.