Twitter explodes as Rishabh Pant replaces Dinesh Karthik at Trent Bridge

The ongoing Test series between England and India has turned out to be a nightmare for Dinesh Karthik. He is playing in the team in place of Wriddhiman Saha, who is recovering from a shoulder injury. Prior to the series, the Tamil Nadu-born cricketer scored a brilliant 82 in the first innings of India’s warm-up match against Essex at County Ground in Chelmsford.

However, the wicketkeeper-batsman has flattered to deceive thus far after the first two matches. He commenced the five-match series with a four-ball duck. Ben Stokes ran through his defense to shatter his stumps. In the second innings, during India’s endeavour to chase down 194 runs, he built a useful partnership of 34 runs along with Virat Kohli, the Indian captain.

Pant gets his opportunity

Unfortunately, he couldn’t carry on and fell prey to James Anderson’s probing line and length. The second Test at Lord’s turned out to be even more abysmal for him as he could manage only a single run in the entire match. Sam Curran rattled his woodwork in the first innings as Karthik perished for one run. He couldn’t open his account in the second innings and became Stuart Broad’s victim.

India are 2-0 down in the series and in a bid to resurrect their wretched fortunes, they were expected to make a few changes. The axe eventually came down on Karthik and Rishabh Pant, who earlier got his maiden Test call-up, will make his debut in the third Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Pant was earlier with the India ‘A’ team in their tour of England and he didn’t disappoint.

He scored as many as five half-centuries in the List A and the first-class encounters against England Lions and Windies ‘A’. The Uttarakhand-born player also scored 34 runs against Essex in the practice match. In the meantime, Twitter showered their praises on the 20-year-old as he is all set to foray into the most demanding format of the sport.

Here is how Twitter reacted