Dinesh Karthik or Rishabh Pant For T20 World Cup? Sunil Gavaskar Answers

Nagpur: Over the past month or so, there has been a lot of debate over Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant over who should play in the XI at the T20 World Cup. While the debate is still on, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar weighed in on the issue and gave his opinion. As per Gavaskar, both Pant and Karthik should make the XI. The legendary opener also said that he sees Pant playing ahead of Hardik or at No. 6.

“Yeah I see both of them playing. Hardik at 5, Pant at 6 or maybe Pant ahead of Hardik depending on the situation and Karthik at 7,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports ahead of the second India vs Australia T20I in Nagpur.

During the second T20I at Nagpur versus Australia, both featured but Karthik was sent ahead of Pant. The move worked as Karthik hit 10 off two balls to take India over the line in an eight-over game.

Following the win, captain Rohit Sharma explained why Karthik was promoted. Admitting that he is glad that Karthik finished well, Rohit said he was promoted merely because it had been a while since he (Karthik) was in the middle.

“Glad DK could finish well. Been a while since he had some time in the middle. There was this thought if we should get Rishabh in but I thought Sams is going to bowl off-cutters, so I thought let DK come in and he is playing that role anyway for us,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation.