Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Dinesh Karthik showed concern about the lack of competition and the increasing frequency of one-sided matches in recent times involving India. India outplayed West Indies in the first T20I at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday, October 6, chasing down a 171-run target with 32 deliveries in hand to take
a 1-0 lead in the five-match series as well.
“For me, the bigger worry in the bigger context would be, are these games getting a bit too meaningless? In the sense that 170 is scored, and the other team is chasing it in 15 overs. Is the pitch so flat that the batters are wreaking havoc? That is something that we need to see. Why is it that the teams are not competing? What would it take for West Indies to compete? I don’t think that’s India’s job because they are there to win the bilateral series,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
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“How interesting is it to watch if a lot of the games are becoming one-sided? All 3 ODIs were pretty much one-sided and high-scoring. Here, 170 is a good, decent score, but very easily chased down. If the pitch had something in it for the spinners, then it was a decent score. But on flat pitches, they are coming in and smashing it and finishing in 15 overs. That worries me for the long run; that is not a good sign,” he again shared.
Dinesh Karthik also questioned West Indies’ spirit after dismissing the Indian openers early in the run chase as well. Team India were in a tricky position at 35-2 in the fourth over, but failed to restrict India after an unbeaten 137-run partnership between Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer for the third wicket as well.
“There was no fight from the West Indies team at any point after that. After 35-2, you want the team to be 50-4 or 80-5; that is when the game becomes interesting. I just feel that it is too batter-oriented. We love our superstars and we all want them to score a lot of runs, but we also want competition,” Dinesh Karthik concluded.
