“You look at form and not reputations”- Sunil Gavaskar’s indirect dig at Gautam Gambhir over Dinesh Karthik’s T20 WC chances


“You look at form and not reputations”- Sunil Gavaskar’s indirect dig at Gautam Gambhir over Dinesh Karthik’s T20 WC chances

Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, and Sunil Gavaskar

T20 World Cup is a talk of the town these days among the cricket lovers. They want their team to be the best, and so choosing players carefully over how their present form and performances are what everyone, and especially the selectors are eyeing the most. Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir has said that based on Dinesh Karthik’s form, it’s too early to say. He didn’t want Karthik to be in the squad if there is no place for him in the playing XI. Apparently, Karthik has been in phenomenal form these days, his finishes touches in the recently concluded IPL 2022 awed the fans. He carried that form to the while playing for India against South Africa in the five-match T20I series.

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“Too early to say. T20 World Cup is far ahead. He [Dinesh Karthik] needs to consistently perform till then but if he wants to bat only in the last three overs, things could get tough. India will definitely be looking at someone in the top 7 who can bowl and if Axar is batting at 7, the team would be a batter short,” Gambhir had said on Star Sports.

“In such a case I would not have him (Karthik) in the World Cup Squad. I would definitely have people like Rishabh Pant, and Deepak Hooda (in the team). We have got KL Rahul, we’ve got Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma. Once they come back, it’s going to be tough for Dinesh Karthik to find a place in the playing XI. If he doesn’t have a place in the playing XI, there’s no point giving him a place in the squad,” Gambhir further said.

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“How do you see he’s not going to be able to play?”- Sunil Gavaskar

Former India veteran Sunil Gavaskar showed his surprise on Gambhir’s remarks. Karthik is a “player India wants” as Gavaskar puts it.

“I know people are talking about how can you include him in the team when he’s not going to play. How do you see he’s not going to be able to play? He could be the guy you want. You look at the form and not reputations, names and then you pick the guy,” Gavaskar said. 

“He (Karthik) doesn’t get too many opportunities, bats at number six and seven. You can’t expect him to get 50 regularly. He’ll get you a good 40 in 20 deliveries and that’s what he has been doing consistently. He did the exactly the same thing again and that is the reason why he’s very much in contention for a place in the World Cup squad. The way he got runs today, India were down and out. Don’t look at the man’s age, look at the performances,” said Gavaskar.

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