Veteran India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik recently said how India’s top-order batters have failed to score constantly in their recent appearances in Test cricket. He also added that their string of poor performances is a result of playing on challenging wickets as well. Karthik again shared that their star batters’ averages have dropped as they failed to score big hundreds even at home as well.
Notably, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli failed to contribute much in the first innings of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final as well. Dinesh Karthik opined on this matter during a discussion on Cricbuzz.
“They (Indian batters) have also played on tough pitches as we have seen, and obviously, that doesn’t help their averages. But they kind of put themselves in a corner because when they have toured abroad and they haven’t ended up winning the series, they put pressure back on them. So, they have to come back to the home series and they have to make it happen for them to reach where we are today in England, the WTC final. It’s been a situation where they have had to adjust in Indian conditions, and a lot of time it’s favored the spinners. It’s gotten over in two and three days, and in such games, you can’t get the big hundreds that we are talking about, hence the poor averages.”
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Dinesh Karthik also said that India aren’t the only side whose top-order failed in the recent past. He also shared that barring Australia and England, all other teams are dealing with the same issue as well. Notably, the onus was on the Indian batters to bounce back into the game after Australia posted a huge 468-run total after being asked to bat first in the WTC 2023 final at The Oval as well. However, they failed to do well with the bat.
“Over a period of time, you will say that the top order has had a tough time, like anyone else in the world. I think England and Australia are slowly, but steadily starting to come good, but across the world, the averages haven’t been great, and at that time, India has been very ordinary as well,” Karthik continued. “I think Pujara’s case is definitely an error of judgment. He thought it would bounce a little more. But it didn’t and it also came in a little bit.”
However, Pujara wasn’t the only batter to be dismissed in this way as Indian opener Shubman Gill also got bowled after leaving a ball from Scott Boland that came in sharply and hit the stumps. Gill was in sublime form in the recently concluded IPL 2023, taking home the Orange Cap after scoring 890 runs across 17 innings. But he couldn’t keep the form in the WTC Final as well. And, Dinesh Karthik mentioned that Boland deserves credit for the wicket as well.
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“With Shubman Gill, it was real good bowling. Scott Boland created this visual perception where the previous three balls he bowled it on the fourth stump, and he played it. The next one he went slightly wider, slightly away at the crease as well. So, it gave you a feeling like it was outside the off stump and hence he left the ball. It came in a little more, but the interesting part is that it crashed into the middle and off stump. When you leave a ball and it hits your off stump, you can still think it was an error of judgment, but this one crashed middle and off,” Dinesh Karthik concluded.
