Twitterati goes wild as Dinesh Karthik replaces Manish Pandey in Champions Trophy

In the recent developments in the Champions Trophy, Dinesh Karthik is all set to appear for his second successive Champions Trophy as Manish Pandey misses out of the squad due to an injury. Pandey, who has been a common face in the Kolkata Knight Riders lineup this season, was not available in the Eliminator last night against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Ishan Jaggi replaced him last night, raising many eyebrows.

He was ruled out of the match, the IPL and subsequently from participation in the Champions Trophy 2017 and that opened the doors for Dinesh Karthik the Karnataka star batsman. Karthik though wasn’t named in the squad of 15 but was a part of the reserves for the tournament. He had earlier also featured in India’s victorious campaign in the Champions Trophy in 2013.

The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) took to Twitter to make the announcement. The tweet from BCCI captioned,” NEWS ALERT: @DineshKarthik to replace injured Manish Pandey in the Indian team for Champions Trophy #TeamIndia”

The wicketkeeper-batsman has been in sublime form this season in the domestic competitions. He has also been in good touch in this edition of the IPL for the Gujarat Lions. DK has amassed as many as 361 in the 14 matches he has played in the tournament. He has scored two half-centuries at an average of 36.1.

As a result, Karthik featured on the backup list for the primary squad of the Champions Trophy along with other names such as Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav and Shardul Thakur. It was MS Dhoni’s advice to the chairman of selectors MSK Prasad to keep player’s visa and jersey ready, in a case of any emergency due to an injury.

Yet again MS Dhoni’s advice proved to be gold and Dinesh Karthik will board the flight to London to take part in his second successive Champions Trophy. The last time he put on the Indian blues was three years back in March 2014 against Afghanistan.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to this news