Michael Vaughan Explained Why Team India Should Pick Pant Over Dinesh Karthik: The Indian team management is having a big headache about the make-up of India’s best eleven in the shortest format as the T20 World Cup approaches. India will play the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka before the event in Australia and there we could see India’s best eleven on the field.
A precursor of that strongest eleven was seen in the second T20I of the recently-concluded T20I series against England, which Rohit Sharma’s team won 2-1. Barring KL Rahul, all the expected first-choice players played in the second T20I in Birmingham.
One stark conundrum which India have is the role and position in the eleven of wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant. The left-hander opened in Birmingham in absence of KL Rahul and smashed 26 runs off 15 balls, but is likely to slot back in the middle-order again once Rahul is fit.
Who will India choose: Pant or Karthik or Samson?
However, who he replaced will be interesting to see. Some feel that only one of Pant or Dinesh Karthik could get a place in the eleven. But Dinesh Karthik has been in a sublime form and it seems that the management has pigeonholed him as the finisher in this T20 team. Pant’s inconsistency in T20Is could cost him his spot.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan, though, opined that he would choose Rishabh Pant over Dinesh Karthik in the eleven for one particular reason – that is Pant’s left-handedness. Vaughan’s belief is that Pant being a left-hander breaks up the right-handed heavy Indian line-up of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya and provides a different challenge to the opposition bowlers and captain.
“I am just looking at how India would juggle all these players into the final XI for the World Cup. KL Rahul will come back in. Rishabh Pant, DK, one of them will have to keep. I don’t think both of them will play. I want Rishabh in because he’s left-handed,” Vaughan spoke his mind on the Rishabh Pant debate while speaking on Cricbuzz Live show.
