As we all know that Team India has consolidated its place in the semi-finals and has scheduled its match with England on 10th November. After defeating Zimbabwe in their final Super 12 match, Rohit Sharma-led Team India topped Group 2 and advanced to the T20 World Cup semi-finals on Sunday. But even before the game began, India had guaranteed their place in the semi-finals thanks to a Netherlands win over South Africa, which guaranteed India a top-two spot in Group 2.
India picked Rishabh Pant in place of Dinesh Karthik, the team’s wicketkeeper in the previous games from the match against Zimbabwe. However, former Indian batsman, Virender Sehwag was not satisfied with the team management’s approach. According to Sehwag, if the management had taken a chance on Karthik, then they should have stayed with him throughout the tournament.
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Virender Sehwag Slams Indian Team Management
In a show on Cricbuzz, former aggressive opener Virendra Sehwag said, “Rohit Sharma said we wanted to give him (Pant) one game because we have already qualified for the semis. We don’t need a finisher since we are batting first. You need a finisher when you are chasing. I was saying that India should’ve made Zimbabwe bat first. Rishabh Pant has played cricket in such conditions, both in red ball and white ball. As Ashish Nehra rightly pointed out that if he had scored a big knock, will India go from him or a finisher (Karthik).”
Sehwag also said that dropping Karthik before the semi-finals will not bode well for his confidence, especially if India decides to play him in the knockout match against England.
“If you have gambled on Dinesh Karthik for the T20 World Cup, then you’ve got to play him until the end of the tournament. Benching Dinesh Karthik won’t be good for his confidence. He needs some confidence as he hasn’t scored runs so far,” he added. Source
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While Rahul Dravid has put forward a note to Dinesh Karthik and said “Tough for someone like DK to assess how he is gone. Didn’t get to play many games. He got one ball against Pakistan at that back end and didn’t bat against the Netherlands. Our belief has always been to back and support players in those positions so that come the critical time, hopefully, they will be in the right frame of mind to be able to play those crunch”
Dravid on Rishabh: “Yeah, I mean, it’s not that we ever lost confidence in Rishabh. We have got confidence in all the 15 players in the squad. It’s only 11 guys who can play. It depends on the combination that you have to play.”
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