Former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin hasn’t felt happy to see Dinesh Karthik as a wicketkeeper in the first T20I of the ongoing three-match home T20I series against Windies, while Rishabh Pant was also in the playing XI, who recently made his Test debut as a wicketkeeper-batsman.
On last Sunday night (November 4), during the T20I match between India and Windies at Eden Gardens (Kolkata), two regular wicketkeepers were in India’s playing XI – experienced Dinesh Karthik and youngster Rishabh Pant.
Though Karthik didn’t have an impressive wicketkeeping record and Pant has impressed with his wicketkeeping qualities since his Test debut in this August, the Indian stand-in-skipper Rohit Sharma decided to go with the experiences for the wicketkeeping option.
However, the former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin felt unhappy with this decision as he feels that Pant has the better wicketkeeping skills than Karthik and he has proved it during his maiden Test series and that was too in England.
Azharuddin told PTI on Sunday, “One got to bank on Pant. If he is good enough to keep wickets in Test matches in England than why not T20? And no doubt that he showed better skills in England than Karthik.
“I honestly feel Rishabh should have kept wickets today (1st T20I). When you are a keeper, you should keep wickets. He is a good player. He has done well. The more he keeps, the more he will learn. I think his keeping needs to improve a lot though.”
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After restricting Windies to just 109/8 at the end of 20 overs, India reached the target in 17.5 overs after losing five wickets, thanks to Dinesh Karthik (31* off 34 balls) and the debutant Krunal Pandya’s (21* off 9 balls) brilliant battings.
The 23-year-old Indian left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav won the Player of the Match award while he played the leading role for this victory with the brilliant bowling performance 4-0-13-3. Azharuddin praised the young bowler as he has felt that Kuldeep would be a major force of the future Indian cricket team.
Also read: Kuldeep Yadav credits his IPL experiences for success in the Eden Gardens T20I
The former Indian captain said, “Kuldeep has fast emerged as a good bowler. Now he is bowling well and improving everyday. In the years to come, he will be a major force.”
