After the end of World Cup, Indian selectors have started the preparations for 2023 World Cup and 2020 T20 World Cup. In the leadership of Virat Kohli, Team India was considered as a strong contender for the World Cup. The men in blue bowed out of the show piece event after a shocking loss to New Zealand by 18 runs.
Now Team India will head to tour of West Indies for the bilateral series in August, where it has to play 3 one-day, 3 T-20 and 2 test matches. Team India was announced on Sunday for the two-month long tour.
According to the expectation, many new players have got an opportunity which includes the likes of Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer and Khaleel Ahmed. But there are many players from the World Cup squad who have not got an opportunity to play in the Windies series. While Dhoni and Bumrah have been rested, Hardik is excluded from the side due to injury.
Dinesh Karthik is one name who was sidelined from the team following his impressive run. Karthik was preferred over a yougng Rishabh Pant in the World Cup squad. Karthik was named as the reserve wicketkeeper in the World Cup and later he was given a place in three matches but failed to impress which prompted to the selectors to ouster him.
The 34-year-old Karthik made his debut for Team India in ODIs, 15 years ago, but after the arrival of MS Dhoni to the International scenes, he was sidelined team from the team for a long time.
Dinesh Karthik was given a place in the 2019 World Cup squad following his experience which may prove to be his first and last World Cup. Karthik played a total of 3 matches in the World Cup 2019 including the semi-finals. He got to bat in two innings and scored just 14 runs at an average of seven and a very bad strike rate of 41.18.
Young wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant, who replaced Rishabh Pant in 2019 World Cup squad, scored 116 runs in 29 innings with an average of 29 and a strike rate of 89.23. Now, when the selectors are eyeing an ideal team for the 2023 World Cup, it is clear that Dinesh Karthik will no longer be in future plans, considering that he 34-year-old and surpassed his prime. Chief selector MSK Prasad made it clear that Rishabh Pant will be the premier wicket-keeper across all three formats.
Dinesh karthik’s career
Dinesh Karthik has featured in 94 ODIs in his career of 15 years. He averages 30 with a strike rate of 73, which will be called worst in today’s era of T20 cricket. He did not do anything special in Tests and scored 1025 runs in 26 matches at an average of 25. Therefore, the selectors called back Wridhamann Saha in the test squad. Saha was out of the team due to injury and is now ready to return again.
Now when there is a long line of young players like Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan in front of the selectors, in such a situation, Dinesh Karthik’s hopes of returning to the team are very low.
