Former India player turned commentator Aakash Chopra has praised Dinesh Karthik for playing a game-changing knock in the first T20I between India and the West Indies on Friday (July 29). Karthik smashed an unbeaten 41 off just 19 balls as the Men in Blue set a challenging 191-run target for the Windies at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba. And, then, their bowlers successfully restricted the Windies to 122-8 to help the team register an emphatic 68-run win and take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series as well.

While reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “My Player of the Match is Dinesh Karthik; he was actually chosen as the Player of the Match as well, although Rohit Sharma scored the most runs. This is where stats tell us a few things but hide a lot. They tell that Rohit was brilliant; there is no doubt about it, but when he got out, it seemed India will get stuck. How will they get stuck? When Dinesh is there, everything is possible. This player is special, and he has cricket left in him. What a finisher, what a player. Dinesh Karthik came and shone, I mean one more time.”

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However, Team India were reduced to 127/5 when Rohit Sharma was dismissed in the 15th over. Soon Ravindra Jadeja too got out but Karthik added an unbroken 52-run partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin for the seventh wicket to take the team to a safer total. While talking about Karthik’s role as a specialist finisher, Chopra further added that the 37-year-old batted even lower than his usual position in Friday’s game.

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“He might be the only batter in the world who is played at No. 6 as a specialised position. He scored 41 runs off 19 balls, with four fours and two sixes, at a strike rate of 215. He didn’t even come at No. 6 this time, he came at No. 7; he came after Jadeja,” Aakash Chopra concluded.