Former India batter Dinesh Karthik said that star India batter Virat Kohli’s failure in the recently concluded ODI series against Sri Lanka was not a sign of concern as well. He also said that the pitch was tough to play against spinners. His reaction came as Kohli managed the scores of 24 (32), 14 (19) and 20 (18) in his three games as well. However, he was dismissed lbw on three occasions by three different spinners: Wanindu Hasaranga, Jeffrey Vandersay, and Dunith Wellalage as well.

Dinesh Karthik told Cricbuzz: “It’s been a tough pitch to play spin in this series, let’s admit that first. Be it Virat Kohli, be it Rohit Sharma, or be it anyone else. With the slightly semi-new ball between overs about 8 to 30, it’s been hard work. It’s nothing to worry about. Not too many pitches work that way, but it’s been a tough pitch to play spinners. I’m not going to defend Virat Kohli here, but I can tell you that playing spin was very hard.”

However, Dinesh Karthik has named India captain Rohit Sharma’s batting and Riyan Parag’s bowling as the ‘biggest positives’ from the ODI series in Sri Lanka as well. Notably, Rohit finished as the highest run-scorer in the ODI series, smashing 157 runs in his three innings with the help of two half-centuries. Meanwhile, Riyan Parag claimed three wickets on his 50-over debut. He also had bagged three wickets in the T20I series as well.

“The biggest positive is the fact that India played all-rounders and bravely attacked. So that is something I really like. No. 2 Riyan Parag, in his limited opportunities, is showing what he can do with the ball, which is again a small plus for us. Other than that, I think Rohit’s batting is itself. The way he starts in powerplay. He is making batting look too easy in the series. Batted beautifully. These were the positives for me from this series,” Dinesh Karthik concluded.