Dinesh Karthik thinks strike rate is absolute nonsense in Test matches

Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik considers strike rate to be unimportant in the longest format of the sport. He also lauded Cheteshwar Pujara and said that there’s no substance to the arguments that criticize Pujara for his strike rate in Test matches. He also asked people to let him play for as long as he wants since he ends up winning matches for India.

“I feel this strike rate is absolute nonsense. If you take the number of Test matches that have gotten over in four days – it is about 80-82%. So, why to bother about strike rate, let him play at whatever strike rate he wants to play, as long as he can win Test matches for India,” Karthik said on Star Sports’ Twitter Spaces on the eve of the WTC final.

Pujara may not have collected a lot of runs in the recent series Down Under, unlike the 2018-19 Border Gavaskar Trophy where he was the highest scorer for India. However, his ability to bat for hours and hours broke down the plans of Australian bowlers and contributed to India’s historic series win.

“Now, Pujara, why hasn’t he scored runs? You have to understand if you take the last match, he was playing against ranked turners (against England back home), where the team was finding it hard to score 200 runs and to expect Pujara to score a 100 is unfair,” the Kolkata Knight Riders player said.

Karthik also lavished praise on Pujara for his ability to battle under exceptionally tough circumstances. India were in a tight spot on the final day of the Sydney Test. However, Pujara stood against the whipping pace of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins almost single-handedly and took a lot of body blows. Dinesh Karthik even revealed that Cummins, who is his IPL teammate at Kolkata Knight Riders, told him that Cheteshwar Pujara was the difference between India drawing the Test match and losing it.

“If you had put any of the other Indian batsmen at that stage of the day, early on when there is probably a little bit of juice, they would have struggled. There was a good chance we would have capitulated on that game. For us to not cross that hurdle, to get to Brisbane unscathed, the reason was Pujara in a big way,” concluded Karthik.