The T20 World Cup is only a couple of months away and the teams are at the business end of their preparations. Most have already identified their strongest playing XI for the mega event in Australia but India have a selection dilemma at the moment with so many players delivering good performances of late.
India do have a selection headache but that is a happy one, though. The most popular topic people are debating on right now is the wicket-keeper’s slot in the Indian playing XI. While some still want Rishabh Pant there, even though his T20 form hasn’t been that great of late, others want an in-form Dinesh Karthik to be India’s first choice Keeper-batter.
However, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has a different view. He thinks both Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik should be there in the Indian playing XI for the T20 World Cup. He believes that Pant is a dangerous batter even though his recent T20 numbers don’t do justice to his talent. The legendary batter thinks Pant along with Karthik and Hardik Pandya in the middle-order can destroy even the best bowling attacks.
“We have seen what Rishabh is capable of in 50-over cricket and I know absolutely what he is capable of in the T20 game,” Ponting said on the ICC Review Show.
“Dinesh Karthik has had his best IPL ever just very recently … and I would be trying to find every possible way to have both of those guys in my team. Rishabh to bat, in that three-four-five range, and have Dinesh and maybe Hardik Pandya… if you have those guys finishing for you, well that batting line-up looks very, very dangerous,” Ponting added.
But Ponting knows about India’s problem of plenty right now. He knows that picking these three players would mean dropping someone from the top four. He doesn’t think it is going to be Suryakumar Yadav as he has been in top-notch form. Suryakumar even scored a T20I century against England recently.
“Obviously that means someone like (Ishan) Kishan or Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) or (Shreyas) Iyer, someone like that, might miss out and I don’t think Surya will miss out given his current form. But when you got so much talent picking an Indian team is always going to be difficult and Pant and Karthik would be the two, I would pick ahead of Kishan right now,” Ponting mentioned.
