World Cup 2019: Rumors suggest Virat Kohli’s vote of confidence got Dinesh Karthik into the team

The debate of picking the experienced Dinesh Karthik over the youth of Rishabh Pant as the backup wicketkeeper for the Indian 15-man squad for the ICC World Cup 2019 doesn’t seem to be getting cold any time sooner. It was also a nice little time away from RCB’s dismal IPL 2019 campaign for skipper Virat Kohli, as the meeting with BCCI higher up made him forget for a while that his team was at the last spot in the points table.

As Kohli’s RCB looks to face Dinesh Karthik’s KKR in their next match in the ongoing IPL 2019, the game, if rumors are to be believed, relates to the captains of the respective team and the World Cup squad. BCCI’s acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary on April 15, announced the 15-man squad and one of the major points apart from the no.4 spot batsman was who will be the backup keeper for MS Dhoni.

Virat Kohli bats for inclusion of experience of Karthik over expressiveness of Pant

Many experts had batted for Pant given his massive potential of turning matches on its head single-handedly. But Karthik won the race for the World Cup, as the selection committee deemed him the better keeper of the two. “Well, it’s definitely a case where we have debated at length and all of us, in unison, felt that either Rishabh Pant or DK will only come into the playing XI if Mahi (MS Dhoni) is injured,” MSK Prasad was quoted as saying by ibtimes.com.

“So, at that juncture, it is a crucial match like the semifinal or an important game (of the World Cup), wicketkeeping also matters. So that’s the only reason why we went ahead with Dinesh Karthik, otherwise, Rishabh Pant was almost there,” MSK Prasad added further.

As per rumors in IB Times, it was Kohli who swerved the decision of selectors with his vote of confidence going to Karthik given his newly found Zen-like calmness in finishing games. Pant, on the other hand, has shown a tendency of throwing away his wickets at the most inopportune time. It also suggested that four out of five selectors allegedly wanted Pant ahead of Karthik in the squad.

Another potential reason is that Kohli believes in a tactically astute wicketkeeper. We all have seen how dependent Kohli is on the inputs from MS Dhoni during the Indian team matches and his captaincy for RCB and for India in absence of Dhoni has found him looking for right advice from wise minds. Karthik has enough experience of leading Tamil Nadu and KKR and even took the franchise to the playoffs in his first season last year.

Therefore, Kohli preferred Karthik, given that he has played the game for long enough and can assess situations well.

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