Asia Cup 2022: Playing Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant in T20Is right decision, says Harbhajan Singh

Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh feels playing Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant in T20I cricket is the right decision. Karthik has been doing a fine job as a finisher whereas Pant hasn’t been consistently able to grab his chances in the shortest format of the game.

However, before the Asia Cup, Rishabh Pant was playing as the wicket-keeper batter of the team and Dinesh Karthik only played as a finisher. Pant was given the opportunity to bat in the middle order in the absence of players like Virat Kohli and KL Rahul.

But when Kohli and Rahul made a return to the team for the Asia Cup, the team management had to make a hard choice between Karthik and Pant.

As Karthik was in prolific form with the bat, he was given an edge in the big contest against Pakistan. The right-hander had scored 330 runs for RCB in IPL 2022 and had continued his good show in the rest of the Indian matches. Karthik has scored 193 runs in 16 matches in 2022 at a fine strike rate.

On the other hand, Rishabh Pant has done an amazing job in the Test format but he hasn’t been consistent enough in the limited-overs format.

“Rishabh Pant, no doubt, has done very well even in Test cricket and one-dayers. He has been very good. But in this shortest format, he has not been an accomplished player. However, if you look at Dinesh Karthik, his graph is only going upward. He has performed well. This is the right decision. In this format, in this form, there is no use keeping him on the bench. It’s time for Dinesh Karthik to play, he should play,” Harbhajan told AajTak from Dubai.

“Rishabh Pant is young, he still has plenty of time left. However, Dinesh Karthik has only 1-2 years left and he should make the most of it, the team should also use Karthik’s form and make the most of it. He can win a lot of matches, batting down the order,” he added.

It is expected that India will continue to back Dinesh Karthik in the rest of the matches in Asia Cup while Rishabh Pant will take the backup role.

India won their opening match of the tournament against Pakistan by five wickets and they will look to continue the good form against Hong Kong on Wednesday.