Former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik has suggested that India can trust Bhuvneshwar Kumar as a batter for the number eight position and they can bring in Varun Chakravarthy in the second game against New Zealand.
However, Karthik admitted the Indian team is not going to make a tweak in the playing combination and they are most likely to go with the same final XI. Nitish Kumar Reddy batted at number eight in the series opener and scored two runs off three balls.
India’s think tank is known to back batting depth ahead of specialist bowlers and they have been following this playing combination for a while now.
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar can bat. In this game, he would have done the job that Nitish Kumar Reddy did, which is to rotate the strike and all, for sure. If they believe in what I say, which is that Bhuvneshwar can bat at No.8, they don’t believe in that right now. He is obviously a better No.9 than a No.8, for sure,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“You would rather have Axar batting at No.8, and they are almost saying that they might not get wickets through the middle overs, but they still trust Axar to do the job. I quite like this three all-rounder combination. I think it gives them enough room to bowl eight overs among them,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar Kumar went wicketless in his four-over spell and conceded 49 runs in his quota of four overs, including two wides and as many no-balls. Thus, he didn’t have a great return to India’s playing XI after almost four years.
The second T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, on Saturday.
