‘An innings (27-ball 55) like that certainly means Karthik is banging hard’: Rahul Dravid praises Dinesh Karthik – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

India head coach Rahul Dravid lauded the performance of Dinesh Karthik throughout the five-match series against South Africa. He said that Karthik is certainly making himself count for the T20I World Cup later this year.

Thirty-seven-year-old Karthik returned to the national side after more than two years, on the back of some excellent finishing skills for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

Karthik continued his red hot form in the international arena as well and scored 30 (21) in the second match of the series. He struggled in the third T20I and managed only six runs from eight deliveries. However, the highlight of the series for him was the fourth match in Rajkot wherein he smashed 55 of just 27 deliveries. This was also his first T20I half-century.

Answering at the post-match press conference, Dravid said, “He was picked for a specific skill – something he was doing exceptionally well in the last two-three years. It is nice that his selection has been vindicated.”

Karthik’s finishing skills seemed to have come of age. The knock was seen with greater respect since the pitch was not batting-friendly and other batters struggled.

“It came together brilliantly at Rajkot, where we needed that big performance in the last five overs to make a par score. Karthik and Hardik [Pandya] batted beautifully for us. Both Karthik and Pandya are our enforcers at the death. They can capitalise in the last five-six overs as well as anyone in the world,” Dravid continued the praise.

With the T20I World Cup on the radar of all the teams, the think tanks are looking at team selections and combinations in the squad. Karthik finishing the innings well and consistently has surely made a strong case for himself for future shorter format engagements.

The wall shared his thoughts on selections and said, “It is nice to see Karthik doing well. It opens options for us going forward. I was telling the guys that they have to bang the doors open, not just knock. An innings like that [at Rajkot] certainly means that Karthik is banging hard.”

Karthik last played a T20I in February 2019 but was recalled to the T20I side for the role of a finisher. And he didn’t fail to do so scoring 92 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 158.62 which was the best amongst Indian batters and second-best overall in the series.

Karthik will be next seen in action in the two-match T20I series against Ireland. The eyes of experts, as well as fans, will be glued to him to see if he can replicate overseas, his performance on the Indian tracks.

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