The Indian cricket team strung together some amazing performances to stamp their tickets for the semi-final clash of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022. Considering how they played in the tournament so far, winning four out of the five games in the group stage, the Indian side will be confident ahead of the knockout clash against England. However, ahead of the big knockout match, they have a big selection dilemma to attend before the game.
Dinesh Karthik was preferred with the gloves in the line-up, all thanks to his finishing skills. However, the veteran cricketer has failed to fire up in the ongoing tournament so far, which led to Rohit Sharma giving an opportunity to Rishabh Pant in the final group stage game against Zimbabwe. However, Pant also failed to perform and was dismissed after scoring a single-digit.
Ahead of the semi-final match against England, Rohit Sharma was asked why did India try out Pant only after four games were done? Responding to the query, Rohit said:
“Between Pant and DK, I said it before the last game, as well, Rishabh was the only guy who didn’t get to play on this tour at all except the two games that we played in Perth. That was an unofficial practice game. But since then he hasn’t had a hit, and he was the only guy who was missing some game time, so we wanted to give him some time and have some options, as well, whether if we want to make changes in the semis or the finals, we should be able to do that.”
Further, Rohit said that it would have been unfair to bring someone into the team directly in a knockout game and that’s why the team management has already told all the 15 players to be ready as any of them could be called upon to play. He said:
“It would be unfair to just bring the guy from nowhere and make him play the game, so that was the thought. But again, at the same time we’ve told the guys right from the beginning that everyone needs to be ready for whichever game that they have to play, whether it’s semis, final, lead games. They’ve got to be ready for it,”
He was also asked the burning question – who will play DK or Pant? Rohit didn’t give a concrete answer. He said: “But yeah, it was a little tactical, as well, considering we were not knowing which team we would be playing in the semis before that Zimbabwe game, so we wanted to just give a left-hander an opportunity to counter some of the spinners who bowled in the middle for New Zealand and England. That was the thought, and we thought Rishabh was the guy for us to go and give him some time, as well. But again, what is going to happen tomorrow, I think I won’t be able to tell you right now, but both of the keepers will be in play for sure,”
