Twitterati surprised with Dinesh Karthik's selection ahead of Rishabh Pant in Indian World Cup squad
Both the players were in contention for the backup keeper's slot.
The Indian selectors announced the squad of 15 for the upcoming World Cup on Monday. While the probables who would make it were certain, one interesting question hovered around the inclusion of the second wicketkeeper as back up for MS Dhoni. The veteran Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant were in the race. However, the selectors eventually settled for the former even though he was ignored for the five-match ODI series against Australia at home last month.
The squad led by Virat Kohli includes Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja. Chief selector MSK Prasad, a former India wicketkeeper himself, said the issue of Pant was discussed in details and Karthik eventually prevailed over the youngster keeping in mind the wicket-keeping.
Pant has kept in just two ODIs so far and has played the rest only as a specialist batsman. His performance with the gloves in the series against Australia failed to impress as he missed a number of chances to dismiss the opponent batsmen, leaving the supporters livid and they called for bringing back Dhoni, who was rested in those games, in his place.
Either Pant or DK when Mahi is injured
“Definitely a case where we debated in length. We all were in unison that either pant or DK will come in only when Mahi is injured. In an important game wicket keeping is also important. That’s the reason we went with Dinesh Karthik,” Prasad said.
India also left out Ambati Rayudu who was being backed as the No.4 batsman after he failed to score enough runs in the ODIs this year. The team is looking at Vijay Shankar for the crucial position unless the management decides on something else in crunch games.
Here is how the fans on Twitter reacted to DK’s inclusion ahead of Pant:
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