Legendary Australia captain Ricky Ponting has backed veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik to get a place in India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup. Karthik returned to the Indian colours after almost three years after he displayed imperious form in the recently concluded Indian Premier League. The 37-year-old scored 330 runs at a strike rate of 183.33
He was the standout performer for Royal Challengers Bangalore this season and played a crucial role in their journey to the playoffs. Karthik was recalled to the Indian team for the five-match T20I series against South Africa. In the first match, Karthik didn’t get many balls to showcase his talent as he remained unbeaten on 1 facing 2 deliveries.
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Ponting said that he would pick Karthik for the finisher’s role in the Indian team for the upcoming T20 WC which will be held in Australia later this year.
“I would have him, and I’d have him in at that five or six role,” Ponting told Isa Guha in The ICC Review.
Karthik was part of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup-winning squad but he has been in and out of the team after that. However, the veteran gloveman has expressed his desire to get
Talking about, Karthik’s form and Ponting said that he created a bigger impact than any other RCB player this year.
“The way that he finished games for RCB this year, he took his game to another level. When you look at the IPL, you want your better players to maybe be able to win two or three, maybe four games through the season. If you can get that out of them, it’s probably going to be a really good return. But Dinesh probably had a bigger impact on a lot of the games than most of the other RCB players did this year,” he added.
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The legendary Aussie skipper further asserted that he would be surprised if Karthik failed to make it to India’s squad for the mega ICC event.
“Virat (Kohli) having the year he’s had, Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) started the tournament really well but DK was the one. And Faf too I guess, who kept the RCB bandwagon rolling. I’d be surprised if he’s not in there (India) line-up somewhere,” Ponting added.
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