Who should play Rishabh Pant or Dinesh Karthik?
Asia Cup 2022 is around the corner and there has been a lot of confusion regarding the wicketkeeper selection as there are currently two options in the form of Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant. Here in this article, we talk about Who should play Rishabh Pant or Dinesh Karthik?
Rishabh Pant will most likely be the favorite among others to keep the wickets and be in the playing 11. There can be a situation where both can be played in the starting eleven, but the possibility of that happening is very less.
When asked about the chances of playing in the starting 11, Pant said to an interviewer of Zee Hindustan that “We don’t think about those lines. We, as individuals, always want to give our 100 percent to the team. The rest depends on the coach and the captain and how the team could get an advantage from that.”
Pant is a versatile batter who can bat at any given position, recently Pant has been in excellent form and has played as an opener, as a middle-order batsman, and can also bat as a finisher. With his left-handed batting, he adds a variety to the playing 11 and the only situation will tell in which position he will be playing.
On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik is in brilliant form in finishing the innings for his IPL side as well as for India, Karthik is known for his 360-degree cricket and his experience will be useful for team Indian in the depth over in the Asia Cup.
Playing both Karthik and Pant will not be a good idea as Hardik will be used as a fifth bowler and it would be a risky option to play both Pant and Karthik together in the playing 11. It would be a better option if only one among them is chosen for the playing 11 which will help the squad balance perfectly for any situation.
Stats of Pant and Karthik in T20 format
Rishabh Pant has played 48 matches for India and scored 741 runs on an average of 23.15, with a strike rate of 123.91. When we see the records of Dinesh Karthik for India, he has played 37 matches and scored 491 runs on an average of 35.07, with a strike rate of 146.13.
If we look at their recent form from the last ten matches they played for India, Rishabh Pant has scored 171 runs and Dinesh Karthik has scored 155 runs in his last ten matches.
The first match is against the arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup opener, where we will have to wait and see who among the two options available will be selected for the playing 11.
